Occupied Jerusalem -

The shooting attack that took place in a synagogue inside the "Nabi Jacob" settlement in Jerusalem, in which 7 settlers were killed and carried out by Khairi Alqam on Friday night, January 27, 2023, brought back to the minds of Jerusalemites the attack carried out by cousins ​​Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal in a synagogue. Har Nof" in West Jerusalem on November 18, 2014, which resulted in the death of 5 rabbis and the wounding of others.

The number of Israelis killed in the "Nabi Jacob" settlement operation reminded Jerusalemites of the shooting carried out by the young Jerusalemite Alaa Abu Dahim in 2008 in the "Merkaz HaRav" synagogue in Jerusalem, which led to the killing of 8 Israelis at the time.

Operation "Nabi Jacob" came one day after the massacre carried out by the occupation forces in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, in which 9 Palestinians were killed.

And while Israel's responses to the largest Jerusalem attacks in the last 15 years were violent, observers and experts read the scenarios of the Israeli response, which comes amid an unprecedented escalation in the daily killing of Palestinians, especially since the arrival of the current government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, which is described as the most extremist in the history of the Hebrew state.

The operation targeted settlers and killed 7 of them, one day after the Jenin massacre, which left 9 Palestinian martyrs (Reuters)

Jenin massacre

The academic and researcher specializing in Israeli affairs, Adel Shadid, confirmed to Al-Jazeera Net that Israel was expecting a Palestinian response to the Jenin camp massacre, in which 9 Palestinians were killed, but not in the manner in which the synagogue operation in Jerusalem came.

He added that the oppression and criminality in the Jenin camp was clear that it would lead to individual Palestinian responses in light of the inability of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian factions to deter Israel.


Three-way operation

The academic, Adel Shadid, read the recent operation in Jerusalem in three directions:

– The location of the operation:

which Israel will try to exploit, since it took place inside a Jewish place of worship and during the Shabbat prayer, and Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will work to involve the religious dimension in the conflict and confrontation, forgetting that they are the ones responsible for fueling this, not the Palestinians.

The timing of the operation:

It came one day after the Jenin massacre, after which the Palestinians thirsted to see the Israeli dead and blood, based on the principle that violence only leads to violence and that killing will only lead to killing, and to convey a message that the Israeli policy followed in the Jenin camp will not pass without a price.

The identity of the perpetrator:

who hails from East Jerusalem and holds a blue Israeli identity card. He went out to say that Israel’s policy aimed at fragmenting the Palestinian people and separating those living in Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Palestinian interior and the Gaza Strip had failed.

Although the state of alert was raised on the borders with the Gaza Strip, the response came from a young man who killed 7 Israelis with his pistol, while the operation to storm Jenin camp cost Israel hundreds of soldiers and military vehicles to kill a similar number of Palestinians.

Palestinians distribute sweets in celebration of the Jerusalem operation, which came a day after the Jenin massacre (Reuters)

The results of the Israeli failure

Regarding what will result from the recent synagogue operation, Shadeed said, "We have actually entered into a confrontation that is represented in action and reaction operations on both sides. On the one hand, settlers will not stand idly by in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and on the other hand, this individual operation will whet the appetite of other Palestinian youths and will encourage them to carry out operations." ".

Despite the deep state of confusion in the Israeli political and security circles after the operation took place, the Israeli security services did not admit their failure, and went on to say that their execution of the perpetrator prevented the occurrence of a major operation, in an attempt to appease the right-wing street.

This operation comes weeks after Ben Gvir assumed the position of Minister of National Security, and he received his position with an operation that caused a large number of deaths that had not been recorded in Jerusalem since the operation of the young Alaa Abu Dahim in 2008.

In the frost of the occupation refrigerators, the bodies of the two Jerusalemite youths, Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, lay for 36 days before they were handed over to their families for burial, and that process was followed by a series of individual operations that escalated in early October 2015 in what was known as the "Jerusalem gift", which was characterized by individual operations that are difficult to predict. This type of operation is still the most disturbing thing for the Israeli intelligence service.