Ben-Gvir calls for death
Penalty • Terrorist killed, police arrest 40 suspects
In the worst murderous rampage Israel has known in years, seven people were killed in a shooting attack outside a synagogue in the jerusalem neighborhood of neveh ya’acov on Friday evening.
the 21-year-old terrorist – a resident of east jerusalem – arrived outside the ateret avraham synagogue at around 8 p.m. and opened fire at people walking nearby. he then attempted to flee the scene by car and fired in the direction of Israel police officers who shot back and killed him.
after a second terrorist attack in the city of david on saturday morning, the IdF bolstered its forces in the west Bank with three additional battalions. In addition, since Friday night, the police have arrested over 40 suspects who were taken in for questioning to determine if the attackers had assistance.
By saturday night, three of the victims were identified as: Eli mizrachi, 48, his wife natalie Ziskin-mizrachi, 45, of neveh ya’acov; rafael Ben-Eliyahu, 56, and asher natan, 14.
the security cabinet convened on saturday night to discuss responses to the attack. national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he would demand the immediate sealing of the terrorist’s home, the legislation of a death penalty for terrorists and the easing of regulations so more Israelis can receive permits to carry sidearms.
one of the people who was near the synagogue on Friday night during the attack said that it took the police a long time to arrive at the scene since they initially thought that the shots that were fired were towards the air – as often happens in nearby east jerusalem neighborhoods.
Large police forces arrived at the scene and began searching for additional attackers. helicopters were dispatched to assist in the searches.
“I went from one victim to the next to see who to help,” said Fadi dikdak, a magen david adom paramedic who was one of the first at the scene. “It was very difficult and hard to see. we had to check all of the wounded and see who we can help and who we cannot.”
when the police arrived at the scene, the terrorist – later identified as Kheiry alkam from a-tur in east jerusalem – opened fire in their direction. the policemen returned fire and killed him.
the IdF arrested the terrorist’s parents and surrounded his house in the neighborhood of a-tur in east jerusalem just hours after the attack.
celebrations, including fireworks and guns being shot in the air, were witnessed in jenin, Gaza and other palestinian areas in the west Bank.
Five wounded were evacuated to the hadassah-university medical centers on mount scopus and shaare Zedek medical center, jerusalem. of them, a 30-yearold man and a 70-year-old woman arrived in critical
permanently dictating the outcome in the endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During the 2000-2005 Second Intifada, the IDF added a large West Bank barrier wall; during and after the 2015-2016 Knife Intifada, Israel added additional barriers between portions of Jerusalem and certain neighborhoods from where terrorists had attacked. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) learned how to follow, trace, anticipate and preempt potential lone-wolf terror attackers by following their online activities.
And yet, when an east Jerusalem Palestinian with no prior terror record walks into a primarily Jewish neighborhood and opens fire, there is little the mighty IDF and Shin Bet can do.
When a 13-year-old carries out a terror attack, Israel’s highly advanced technological defense machine is also outplayed by an asymmetric adversary.
This does not mean that the IDF and the Shin Bet cannot eventually rein in the current terror wave.
But one thing that defense officials have made clear to the Post is that current teenage and adolescent Palestinians do not remember the Knife Intifada, much less the IDF’s Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.
To get them to reduce the current terror wave, the IDF will either need to continue, and potentially even substantially escalate, its operations over an extended period until it has convinced this next generation of Palestinians that they cannot win and can benefit more from economic cooperation with Israel – or provide the Palestinians with some kind of diplomatic horizon that gives the other side some hope. Or a mix of the two.
If Israel chooses only military force, it will, at best, solve the issue for a few years, until a new group of adolescents spring up who will not remember the conflict of 2022-2023.
The fact is that governments have mostly ignored the Palestinians for several years, distracted by internal divisions, Iran and the hope that the Abraham Accords would make them accept the new Middle East reality.
Defense officials have told the Post that what is happening in Jenin is beyond the control of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Some are not even concerned about the PA stopping security cooperation in Jenin, because there has been none there for years.
In other places however, restoring security cooperation is a top priority as the PA has at times been extremely helpful to the Shin Bet.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad seemed to step back from the brink after the Jenin raid by only firing a symbolic number of rockets at Israel, which had little chance of harming anyone.
They are still nursing their wounds from the confrontations with Israel in May 2021 and August 2022.
But Palestinians in Jenin, some potential attackers in east Jerusalem and individuals who will become teenagers in the coming years are a group that Israel needs to figure out a way to speak to and give hope to, or any new Israeli victory will be as