Netanyahu promises to reestablish security as violence increases

News
Apr 11 2023 11:35 AM
ANIKET DIXIT

Tel aviv: After escalating violence on Monday that included rocket fire from Lebanon and Syria and two more fatalities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to restore security "on all fronts."

Additionally, Netanyahu reinstated the defence minister whose dismissal he had previously announced.

A time when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan falls on the same days as the Jewish Passover and the Christian Easter has been marred by violent clashes, shootings, rocket attacks, and car-ramming attacks.

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A Palestinian teenager and a British-Israeli mother who had lost her two daughters in a West Bank shooting earlier this week were the most recent victims.

More than 30 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanese territory the day after Israeli police on Wednesday stormed the prayer hall of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

The attack was most likely carried out by the Palestinian armed group Hamas, according to the Israeli army. Then, Israel launched an aerial assault on the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, purportedly in an effort to destroy Hamas' "terror infrastructures."

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At a news conference on Monday, Netanyahu declared, "We will not allow the terrorist Hamas to establish itself in Lebanon." He added that this would be done on "all fronts."
Since Netanyahu's new government, a coalition of extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, came to power in December, Israeli-Palestinian violence had already increased.

The most recent uptick occurred late last month after he declared a "pause" for discussion on judicial reform legislation, which divided the country and led to disagreements within his own government.

Yoav Gallant was one of the political casualties; the prime minister fired him on March 26 after he demanded a halt to the legislative process, citing worries about national security and threats from reserve military members to skip work.

Currently, Netanyahu is struggling with extremely low levels of domestic popularity. According to a recent poll, he would probably lose if there were an election today.
Netanyahu stated during his news conference that he and Gallant had "difficult disputes," but he had chosen to put them behind them.

He continued, "Gallant remains in his post and we will continue to collaborate for the safety of Israeli citizens. Images shown on Israeli television show that several hundred protesters in Tel Aviv took to the streets to denounce the administration and the prime minister's speech.

Earlier on Monday, a number of government ministers participated in a Jewish settler protest march that was taking place in the northern part of the occupied West Bank under heavy security.

Israeli forces killed Mohammed Fayez Balhan, 15, of Palestine in the most recent shooting in the area, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, and injured two other people during what the army described as a raid to apprehend a "terror suspect."

The Aqabat Jaber camp, close to Jericho, has been the scene of previous deadly Israeli raids this year. The Israeli army confirmed that its forces were operating there and that their goal was "to apprehend a terror suspect." According to the army, suspects "opened fire on (soldiers), threw Molotov cocktails and explosive devices," and troops retaliated with live fire.

Security personnel detained a suspect, they added. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, fights broke out when the army entered the camp and surrounded several homes. AFP was informed by a Palestinian security official that five people had been detained during the raid.

The "young martyr," according to Hamas, was mourned, and those "standing up to this arrogant enemy" were praised.

The operation took place as a Jerusalem hospital announced that Lucy (Leah) Dee, a British-Israeli woman who was seriously hurt in a shooting attack in the West Bank on Friday that also claimed the lives of her two daughters, ages 16 and 20, had passed away.

The "young martyr," according to Hamas, was mourned, and those "standing up to this arrogant enemy" were praised.

At the march to Eviatar, which was attended by several government ministers, including Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the city's residents agreed to leave in 2021 while authorities looked into their situation.

Ben-Gvir declared to the audience that "the response to terror is to build" settlements. Since Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque's prayer hall in a dawn raid to free "law-breaking youths and masked agitators" they claimed had barricaded themselves inside, violence has flared up once more.

A car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv late on Friday resulted in the death of an Italian tourist and seven other injuries.

As a result of rockets fired from Syria that landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, the Israeli army also claimed to have launched attacks on targets there.

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According to an AFP count based on Israeli and Palestinian official sources, this year's conflict has claimed the lives of at least 94 Palestinians, 19 Israelis, one Ukrainian, and one Italian.

On the Palestinian side, these figures include both combatants and civilians, including minors; on the Israeli side, they mostly consist of civilians, including minors, and three Arab minorities.