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Funerals have been held in Israel for victims of the Holocaust Day terror attack at a synagogue in east Jerusalem.
Friday’s shooting outside a synagogue in east Jerusalem on the Jewish Sabbath left seven Israelis dead and three wounded before police killed the gunman. It was the deadliest attack against Israelis in 15 years.
Authorities released the names of four of the victims. Among them, Asher Natan, 14; Eli Mizrahi, 48, and his wife Natali, 45; and Rafael Ben Eliyahu, 56 years old. Funerals for some victims were scheduled for Saturday night.
Mourners lit memorial candles near the synagogue on Saturday night, and in a sign of the charged atmosphere, a crowd attacked an Israeli television crew that had arrived in the area, chanting “leftists, go home.”
In response to the shooting, Israeli police stepped up activities across East Jerusalem and said they had arrested 42 people, including family members, who were related to the shooter.
It comes as Benjamin Netanyahu announced a series of punitive measures against Palestinians on Saturday, including plans to bolster Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, in response to a pair of shooting attacks that killed seven Israelis and wounded five others.
Family and friends carry the body of 14-year-old Asher Natan, the victim of a shooting attack in East Jerusalem.
Family and friends of Eli and Natali Mizrahi, who were killed in a shooting in Jerusalem, mourn their funeral.
The announcement cast a shadow over next week’s visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and threatened to further escalate tensions after one of the bloodiest months in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in years.
Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet, which is made up of hardline politicians aligned with the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria, approved the measures after a pair of shootings that included an attack outside an east Jerusalem synagogue on Friday night. night in which seven people died.
Netanyahu’s office said the Security Cabinet had agreed to seal off the attacker’s house immediately before its demolition. He also plans to cancel social security benefits for the families of the attackers, make it easier for Israelis to obtain gun licenses and step up efforts to collect illegal weapons.
The announcement said that, in response to Palestinian public celebrations over the attack, Israel would take further steps to “strengthen settlements” this week. He did not give further details.
There was no immediate response from Washington. The Biden administration, which has condemned the shooting, opposes settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, land sought by Palestinians for a future state. The issue is likely to be high on the agenda when Blinken arrives Monday for talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Family and friends mourn at the funeral of 14-year-old Asher Natan
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir investigate the crime scene.
The weekend shootings followed a deadly Israeli raid on the West Bank on Thursday that killed nine Palestinians, most of them militants. In response, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of rockets into Israel, prompting a series of Israeli airstrikes in response. In all, 32 Palestinians have been killed in fighting this month.
Early Sunday, the Israeli army said security guards at the West Bank settlement of Kedumim had shot a Palestinian who was armed with a gun and released a photo of what it said was the weapon. There were no further details about the incident or the condition of the alleged attacker.
It is not clear if the Israeli steps will be effective. The attackers in the weekend shootings, including a 13-year-old boy, appear to have acted alone and were not part of organized militant groups.
Furthermore, Netanyahu could find himself under pressure from members of his government, a collection of religious politicians and ultranationalists, to take even tougher action. Such steps could risk triggering more violence and potentially dragging in the Hamas militant group in Gaza.
“If it is possible to put this violent genie back in the bottle, even for a while, this would require the reinforcement and proper deployment of forces, and carefully managing the crisis without being guided by widespread calls for revenge,” Amos wrote. Harel, the defense affairs commentator for the Haaretz newspaper.
Yesterday, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy opened fire elsewhere in east Jerusalem, wounding an Israeli man and his son, ages 47 and 23, paramedics said. Both were fully conscious and in moderate to serious condition at the hospital, the doctors added.
When police rushed to the scene, two bystanders with licensed weapons shot and overpowered the 13-year-old attacker, police said. Police confiscated his gun and took the injured teen to a hospital.
A Palestinian gunman shot dead seven people on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and another shooting attack in the city on Saturday wounded two people.
Friday’s attack in front of a synagogue was the deadliest in the Jerusalem area since 2008
Blinken is expected to arrive in Israel on Monday. The Biden administration condemned the shooting on Friday night and called for calm on all sides, but gave few details on how he hopes to further these goals.
The attacks represent a critical test for Israel’s new far-right government.
The two Palestinian attackers behind the shootings on Friday and Saturday came from east Jerusalem.
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have permanent residency status, which allows them to work and move freely throughout Israel, but they suffer from poor public services and are not allowed to vote in national elections.
Residence rights can be stripped if a Palestinian is found to be living outside the city for an extended period or in certain security cases.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East war.
The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future independent state. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem in a move that is not internationally recognized and considers the entire city its undivided capital.
Israel’s new national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has portrayed himself as an enforcer of law and order and grabbed headlines for his promises to crack down on the Palestinians even more.
Speaking to reporters at a hospital where victims were being treated, Ben-Gvir said he wanted the home of the gunman in Friday’s attack sealed off immediately as a punitive measure and lashed out at Israel’s attorney general for delaying his order.
Reform of Israel’s justice system, including the attorney general’s office, has been high on the agenda of the new government, which says unelected judges and jurists have overwhelming powers.
The divisive issue helped fuel weekly protests by Israelis who say the sweeping changes proposed would weaken the Supreme Court and undermine democracy.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the central city of Tel Aviv on Saturday night for a new protest. Some held up banners describing Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir as “a threat to world peace.”
The protesters also observed a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the shooting in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders in the West Bank confirmed their decision to halt security coordination with Israel to protest the deadly raid on Jenin.
After a meeting led by President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority called on the international community and the US administration to force Israel to stop its incursions into the West Bank.
Last year, as the Israeli army intensified its arrest raids following a series of deadly Palestinian attacks inside Israel, at least 150 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. It was the highest annual number of deaths in more than a decade and a half. More than 30 people were killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis last year, according to Israeli figures.
Israel says most of the dead were militants. But young people protesting the raids and others not involved in the fighting have also been killed.