Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that the extraordinary security meeting of the Israeli cabinet (the Cabinet) had ended, to discuss the response to the two shootings in occupied Jerusalem.
The correspondent added that the meeting discussed proposals made by a number of ministers, including the issuance of permits to bear arms for Israelis and the execution of Palestinian terrorists.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed what he called a strong response to the two operations in occupied Jerusalem, and "strong" measures, including the immediate demolition of the homes of the perpetrators of the attacks.
Residents of the Palestinian household, Kabil, are responsible for the maintenance of the electric motor and the non-governmental organizations.
1. Be with your partner and a senior citizen of Jerusalem.
2. Shalilat Zkwywt Bhabitwah halaomy wahtbwt Nosfut limshpakhwt Twmkwt Twror >> pic.twitter.com/aBC00buXQP
- Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) January 28, 2023
Netanyahu said that the response to the attack, in which 7 Israelis were killed and 10 others wounded, "will be strong, swift and precise."
Earlier today, the correspondent of the American "Axios" website quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that the prime minister will propose, during the cabinet meeting, measures to respond to the Palestinian attacks, including the arrest and deportation of the families of the perpetrators and the closure of their homes.
The proposed measures will also include pushing for additional reinforcements in the West Bank, and expediting the granting of licenses to carry arms to the Israelis, according to the same source.
The mini-ministerial meeting is held at the headquarters of the Israeli General Security (Shin Bet), instead of the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, in light of the anti-government demonstrations.
On the other hand, the Occupation Army Radio said that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will conduct an assessment of the situation with the participation of the Chiefs of Staff and the Shin Bet.
For his part, the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, said that he had asked the government's legal adviser, Berhav Mayara, to close the homes of the perpetrators of the attacks in Jerusalem.
The legal advisor stated that she did not reject the request, but rather requested access to the infrastructure of the homes, according to Israeli media.
Ben Gvir also called for the establishment of a force he called the "National Guard", and equipping it as a large preventive and offensive force, as he put it.
As for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, he called for besieging the neighborhoods in which the families of the perpetrators of the attacks live.
In turn, the occupation army announced that it had decided to close the settlements surrounding Jerusalem to Palestinian labor.
A shooting attack east of Qalqilya
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority stated that a gunman tried to shoot at the Kedumim settlement, which is built on Palestinian lands, east of Qalqilya.
The commission added that an Israeli security patrol shot and killed him.
This is the fourth operation of its kind in just two days, as the Israeli army announced, earlier, that gunfire had taken place at the "Almog" junction, south of the city of Jericho.
The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) quoted local sources as saying that a young man - whose identity has not yet been known - was shot by a settler, a "security guard", near the "Kedumim" settlement, and the nature of his injury is not known yet.
תיעוד ניסיון הפיגוע בבקעה@glick_sh pic.twitter.com/poN7yMnayU
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) January 28, 2023
In the context, Wafa reported that the Israeli occupation forces stormed - on Saturday evening - several neighborhoods in Aqabat Jaber camp, south of Jericho.
The Israeli occupation forces closed Al-Quds Street leading to the southern entrance of Jericho to citizens, and also closed the northern entrance, and stopped and searched Palestinian vehicles and checked their identity cards.
50 Palestinians arrested in Jerusalem
Until Saturday morning, the Israeli occupation forces arrested about 50 citizens of occupied Jerusalem.
The Commission for Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said - in a statement - that its legal staff in Jerusalem is working within an intensive state of emergency, to follow up on the escalating arrests, which are carried out in a random manner, and have exceeded 50 arrest cases in Jerusalem alone.
Raise the alert
Meanwhile, the occupation army announced today the reinforcement of its forces in the occupied West Bank, following the shooting near a synagogue in occupied Jerusalem, which killed 7 Israelis and wounded 10 others.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that the Inspector General of Police announced that the state of alert was raised throughout Israel to the highest levels, and the police announced the arrest of 42 people in connection with the Jerusalem attack.
Ben Gvir ordered the doubling of the workforce in the firearms department, and the provision of weapons to more Israeli civilians (Reuters)
Palestinian sources said that the occupation forces arrested a number of Palestinians on Friday evening in the Al-Tur suburb of occupied East Jerusalem.
The sources pointed out that the arrests took place during an Israeli force raiding the home of the family of Khairi Alqam, suspected of being the perpetrator of the armed attack, in the settlement neighborhood of Nabi Yaqoub, north of the Holy City.
It added that the arrested, most of whom were young men, were present in the house of the Alqam family, whose members were arrested.
Solo attack
The occupation police killed the perpetrator of the attack while he was fleeing the site, and the police commissioner said that the perpetrator, Alqam (21 years old), was a resident of East Jerusalem, noting that the preliminary investigation showed that he carried out the attack alone.
The perpetrator bears the name of his grandfather, Khairy Alqam, who was stabbed to death in 1998 by settlers in occupied Jerusalem.
The perpetrator of the Jerusalem operation bears the name of his grandfather, Khairy Alqam, who was stabbed to death in 1998 by settlers in occupied Jerusalem (Reuters)
The preliminary investigations of the Israeli police indicated that the young man - who is suspected of being from East Jerusalem and holding an Israeli identity card - fired a pistol while he was driving his car near a synagogue in the middle of the settlement neighborhood.
Hospital in Jerusalem |
ក្ᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪ ᒪᒪᒪᒪ these ᗷᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪ ᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪ ᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪᒪ ᒪᒪᒪᒪ ᒪ.
עדכונים שוטפים >> https://t.co/bP56XqHpnK@HaimOmri pic.twitter.com/VVFgp968RY
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 27, 2023
On the other hand, Israeli security sources said that their investigations indicated that the attacker did not belong to any known Palestinian faction.
The Israeli media stated that the young man fired a gun while he was driving his car near a synagogue located in the center of the Nabi Yaqoub neighborhood.
attack in Silwan
In a related context, two settlers were injured today, one of them in a very serious condition, as a result of gunfire in the Silwan neighborhood near the Old City of Jerusalem, while the occupation police said that it was a Palestinian attack.
The police did not clarify the fate of the suspect, while Israeli media reported the arrest of the perpetrator of the Silwan operation, a 13-year-old boy, who used a gun in the attack.
However, the family of the boy, Muhammad Aliwat, denied that their son was the one who carried out the Jerusalem operation, and confirmed that he happened to be there at the moment of the accident.
תיעוד הפיגוע בעיר דוד: אורב, דורך את האקדח ויורה על היהודים - שהשיבו אש@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/iavaQgVZNx
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 28, 2023
On the other hand, the Al-Jazeera correspondent stated that the occupation forces arrested the brother and parents of Eliwat, who is accused of carrying out the shooting attack in the town of Silwan.
For his part, a spokesman for the Israeli ambulance service, Magen David Adom, said that it had rescued "a 23-year-old man in serious condition and a 47-year-old man in moderate to serious condition, after they were wounded in the upper body by gunshots."
Two settlers were injured, one of them seriously, as a result of gunfire in the Silwan neighborhood (Reuters)
Israeli television said that one of the wounded in the Silwan attack was an army officer, who was on leave on Saturday.
This evening, Israeli media reported that a truck driver attempted to run over a number of soldiers at the Za'tara checkpoint, south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.
The occupation army also said that shooting occurred near a restaurant in the Jordan Valley, without causing any injuries.
"The enemy pays for his crimes"
For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) considered that the "heroic" operations in Jerusalem and other areas translated the position of the resistance, and said that its response would not be delayed, and that "the enemy has begun to pay the price for its crimes in the first place."
In turn, the Islamic Jihad Movement praised the operation, and said that the resistance is alive and remaining, and that "the two Jerusalem operations struck the Israeli security and military system."
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine considered that "the conflict is open with the occupation, and the Silwan process is an affirmation of the Palestinian identity of Jerusalem."
The occupation army announced that it had decided to close the settlements surrounding Jerusalem to Palestinian labor (Reuters)
Breaking into prisons
On the other hand, the Commission for Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Prisoners Affairs condemned - on Saturday - that Israeli forces stormed the sections of Palestinian prisoners inside its prisons, and "abused" them and isolated them.
The commission confirmed in a press statement on its Facebook account that the prison administration "has stormed the sections of the Palestinian prisoners inside its prisons, abused them, isolated them, and transferred dozens from one prison to another in a scheme aimed at harassing them."
The Palestinian Prisoners Club also said - in a statement - that "the oppressive forces of the Israeli prison administration stormed several sections of the prisons of Palestinian prisoners, abused them, and transferred a number of them to other prisons and sections."
The region is heading towards an escalation
In turn, the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, warned that the region is heading towards an unprecedented escalation, as a result of the Israeli crackdown on Palestinian prisoners.
In a statement, Haniyeh said, commenting on the Israeli forces' storming of prisons and assaulting prisoners, that the confrontation will not remain inside the prisons, and that the Palestinian people will not leave their imprisoned children alone in this confrontation.
The occupation forces killed 9 Palestinians during the storming of the Jenin camp two days ago (Reuters)
The head of the Hamas political bureau called on world leaders and free peoples to intervene to stop what he described as the crimes of the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and the Israeli right-wing government against the prisoners.
Haniyeh said that the process of repression to which the prisoners are subjected at these moments is part of what he described as an organized terrorist plan, and falls within the context of an agreed agenda in the Netanyahu government, led by Ben Gvir.
According to the Prisoners' Club, there are about 4,700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 29 women and 150 children and minors.
Palestinian prisoners are constantly engaged in a "battle" against the Israeli prison administration, to demand their rights and to protest against the "abusive" measures taken against them.
Since the beginning of this year, the number of martyrs has reached 30, including 5 children, while the Israeli occupation forces killed 224 Palestinians during the past year 2022, including 61 children.