The most extreme wing of the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is using every spark that ignites in the powder keg of the occupied West Bank to demand that it tighten restrictions against the Palestinians. This came shortly after Thursday morning's attack near a Jewish colony near Jerusalem, in which three Palestinian attackers opened fire indiscriminately, killing an Israeli and wounding others. 10 before two of them were killed and another captured, according to police and emergency services sources.
The ultranationalist Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, have not hesitated to call for the distribution of more weapons so that civilians can defend themselves, for more housing to be built in Jewish settlements, and for restrictions on the movement of Jews Palestinians are being made worse.
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The attack was the “natural response to the massacres and crimes of the occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Hamas said in a statement, reports the Qatari network Al Jazeera. Although the West Bank is breaking records in violence these months, the main theater of the current war is the Palestinian border. Israeli troops have already killed more than 29,000 Palestinians in the Mediterranean enclave in response to the killing of about 1,200 people by Hamas members and the taking of 240 hostage on October 7 on Israeli territory.
Ben-Gvir, a known Jewish racist and advocate of violence, did not take long to arrive at the scene of Thursday's attack. His response to the media was little different from his usual speech or statements after previous attacks: “A very big catastrophe was avoided here thanks to the fact that all the police have guns and the citizens have guns.” And once again he didn't Do not hesitate to join his ministry in defending the distribution of firearms and lifting restrictions on civilian access, because “guns save lives,” he said, calling for greater restrictions to be imposed on Palestinians.
Israel's Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visits the site of an attack this Thursday. AMMAR AWAD (Portal)
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“I hope that there are more and more barriers here. There will be restrictions. We must understand that our enemies are not looking for excuses. The only thing they want is to cause harm. “I will fight for the restrictions, it is good that the prime minister accepts my position,” he added in a direct message to Netanyahu. The minister of national security is one of the main defenders of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. He himself lives in one of these colonies. “The right to life of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria (as the West Bank is called) outweighs the right to freedom of movement of the residents of the Palestinian Authority,” he commented.
Bezalel Smotrich also addressed the Prime Minister and called on him to order the construction of “thousands of new houses” in the Jewish colonies of Palestine, as he published on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
According to local media, the two perpetrators of the attack were killed on Thursday morning by gunfire from armed civilians or members of the security forces who were at the scene. The attackers were originally from the Belén area and two of them were brothers. According to these media outlets, none of these were on the radar of the Israeli authorities and they spent time preparing the attack in advance. The events occurred around the security checkpoint that allows access to the Maale Adumin colony, on a road leading from East Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. According to police, the attackers always arrived in two vehicles armed with rifles, pistols, grenades and other weapons.
Shortly thereafter, dozens of Israeli soldiers captured the town of Beit Tamir, southeast of the city of Bethlehem. The three were originally from this city: brothers Muhammad Zuahara, 26, and Kadam Zuahara, 31, and Ahmad al Hush, 31, according to police information published in the Israeli press. According to the Palestinian agency Wafa, the Israeli military surrounded the homes of the two families during the operation. According to the Haaretz newspaper, the father of the Zuahara brothers is among those arrested.
Israel has not yet launched its announced military ground attack on Rafah, the only part of the Gaza Strip that the army has yet to occupy. But bombing continues on the southern city on the border with Egypt, where more than a million displaced people are gathering, most without shelter and almost no access to food, water, medicine or electricity. The positions for a ceasefire and the release of the more than 100 hostages still in the Gaza Strip remain distant, but there is some optimism about the arrival of Hamas leader Ismail Haniye in Cairo, which could boost negotiations. negotiations, according to Portal.
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