Israeli officials vow revenge after Palestinian attack in Jerusalem
Israeli officials vow revenge after Palestinian attack in Jerusalem
Israeli leaders have vowed retaliation in the wake of a deadly shooting in Jerusalem that left six dead on Monday.
Israeli media reported six people were also wounded in the attack at the Ramot settlement junction, north of occupied Jerusalem, with two suffering serious injuries.
Israeli Army Radio quoted the Shin Bet intelligence service as saying the perpetrators of the Jerusalem attack boarded a bus and opened fire.
Speaking at the scene of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the killings would "strengthen" their resolve in the fight against "terrorism".
"We are now engaged in pursuit and are cordoning off the villages from which the murderers came," he said.
"We will apprehend whoever aided and dispatched them, and we will take even stronger steps."
He added that attacks of this nature would lead to increased Israeli activity in the occupied West Bank and the expansion of their sovereignty there.
“They only increase our determination to complete our missions, in Judea and Samaria too - everywhere,” he said, using the Israeli nationalist names for the West Bank.
He also made an apparent reference to a recent High Court ruling that said Palestinian prisoners were entitled to food as part of their incarceration.
"The government doesn't make it easy on our enemies, and you should act that way too," he said addressing the courts.
Netanyahu's presence at the scene of the attack also meant cancelling his appearence at a scheduled hearing for his testimony in his criminal trial on Monday.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went further than Netanyahu and said the attacks proved the need for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority.
“The Palestinian Authority must disappear from the map, and the villages from which the terrorists came should look like Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” he said in a post on X, referencing areas of Gaza which the Israeli army have levelled.
Last week, Smotrich proposed absorbing 82 percent of the occupied West Bank into Israel, a move that would effectively eliminate the prospect of a future Palestinian state.
Under the proposal, only six isolated enclaves, where major Palestinian cities such as Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron are located, would remain outside of Israeli control. All other areas, including dozens of towns and villages, would be formally annexed.
According to the plan, the Palestinian Authority would be gradually dismantled. The PA was established under the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation and serves as the internationally recognised governing body in parts of the West Bank
'Conquest, expulsion, and settlement'
A number of other Israeli officials promised there would be a response to Monday's attack.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Israeli military operations would expand across the West Bank beyond the refugee camps that had previously been a major focus.
“There will be severe and far-reaching consequences to this heinous attack,” he said, according to his office.
“Just as we defeated Palestinian terrorism in northern Samaria - we will soon do the same in other terror camps."
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir echoed Netanyahu's criticism of the courts and called for the "deportation" of the families of those who carried out the attack.
He also made reference to reforms he enacted allowing Israeli citizens greater freedom to carry weapons in public.
"Go arm yourselves," he wrote on X.
Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party said in addition that next week they would raise the issue of restoring the death penalty for "terrorism" carried by Palestinians.
They said they would bring their bill to the Knesset National Security Committee, which is chaired by party MP Zvika Fogel.
“This is the first step toward restoring deterrence. We will continue to advance the law until its final approval,” said the bill’s sponsor Limor Son Har-Melech, an Otzma Yehudit MK.
Responding to the Jerusalem attack, Har-Melech said there was "no difference between Gaza and Jenin and between Khan Younis and Ramallah."
“In the face of such a reality, the only solution is: conquest, expulsion, and settlement. Only in this way will we restore security to the people of Israel and uproot terrorism,” she wrote.
