Netanyahu vows ‘strong and swift’ response to deadliest terrorist attack in Palestine in 10 years
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night promised a “strong, quick and precise” response to the two deadly terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and proposed stripping Arab attackers with Israeli citizenship of their social security benefits in addition to arming more Israeli civilians.
Seven people, including children, were killed in a terrorist attack on Friday evening in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem as they left a synagogue after a Shabbat service. The attack took place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
A terrorist named Alkam Khayri, a 21-year-old resident of eastern Jerusalem, was shot and killed by police while trying to escape.
The second attack came the next morning, when a 13-year-old terrorist opened fire on a group of Israelis outside the Old City of Jerusalem, critically injuring two people, a father and son. The younger victim, an on-duty soldier, managed to shoot at the terrorist, as did another member of the group, injuring him.
“Whoever tries to harm us, we will harm him and those who help him,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of an emergency meeting of the security cabinet.
“We will seal and demolish the homes of terrorists on an expedited basis in order to collect additional fees from those who supported terrorism. This process already started yesterday and is ongoing,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu expressed “sincere condolences” to the families of those killed in the “heinous and horrific attack.”
The Israeli Prime Minister praised the “courage shown by ordinary citizens” in shooting at terrorists and saving lives.
He said the cabinet would discuss speeding up the process for Israelis to obtain weapons licenses, which is known in Israel as a time-consuming process hampered by excessive bureaucracy. The Cabinet also had to discuss the abolition of national insurance payments to terrorists who have Israeli citizenship or residence permits.
Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai urged Israelis with firearms licenses to carry their guns.
The IDF deployed three more battalions to the West Bank on Saturday amid escalating violence.
The attacks followed Thursday’s IDF raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, in which nine people were killed, most of them terrorists.
The terrorists were planning a massive bombardment of Israel. Later, terrorist groups from Gaza fired rockets into Israel. The Palestinian Authority announced the end of security cooperation with Israel as a result of the raid.
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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.
