Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in domestic difficulty, promised Monday evening to “restore security” in his country after yet another outbreak of violence in the Middle East and two new deaths in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Benjamin Netanyahu also announced that he had reconsidered his decision announced at the end of March to dismiss his Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, who was publicly moved by the division caused in the country by the justice reform project wanted by the government, and had asked for a break in the process.
Wave of violence
While violence between Israelis and Palestinians has been on an inexorable rise since the beginning of the year, after the inauguration of Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of December at the head of one of the most right-wing governments in the history of Israel, the conflict has taken on a broader dimension in recent days.
Deadly attacks, rocket attacks from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, followed by Israeli reprisals: the region has been plagued by a wave of violence since the brutal irruption, on April 5, in the middle of Ramadan, of the police in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.
“Restore calm and security”
“The government, under my leadership, will restore calm and security to our country,” Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We are acting on all fronts,” he said.
‘I promise you, we will reach out to all the vile terrorists who killed our citizens and they will be held to account, without exception,’ PM says after shock in Israel over death of three family members in an attack on Friday in the northern occupied West Bank.
“Heavy price”
Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem announced on Monday afternoon the death of Lucy Dee, a 48-year-old British Israeli, injured in the attack that claimed the lives of two of her daughters, aged 16 and 20.
Earlier, a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager, Mohamed Fayez Balhan, was killed during an Israeli military incursion into the Palestinian refugee camp of Aqabat Jaber, near Jericho, intended according to the army. to “arrest a suspect”.
The day after the intervention of the Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa mosque (in the eastern part, annexed to Jerusalem), officially to “restore order” in the face of “extremists” barricaded with stones and fire rockets fireworks, about thirty rockets had been fired from Lebanon towards Israel, injuring one person and causing material damage.
Martial momentum against bad polls
The Israeli army, which accuses the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, of being the source of these shots, responded by carrying out strikes on Gaza and southern Lebanon.
“We will not allow the terrorist Hamas to establish itself in Lebanon,” Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday evening. “We are still in the midst of combat, we are ready for other strong actions on all fronts if necessary”, he added, also threatening to make Syria pay a “very heavy price” in the event of new rocket attack from its territory.
Benjamin Netanyahu made these martial remarks when he appears very weak politically, with several polls giving the winning opposition in the event of an election today.
More settlements
On Friday evening, the Prime Minister announced the mobilization of reserve police units and military reinforcements, after a ram attack in Tel Aviv that claimed the life of an Italian tourist, and the death of the two Israeli sisters. British.
On Monday, several thousand Israeli settlers took part in a march towards Eviatar, a Jewish settlement not recognized by the Israeli authorities in the northern West Bank, to demand its legalization, AFP journalists noted.
Nearly three million Palestinians live in the West Bank. About 490,000 Jewish settlers also live there in settlements that the UN considers illegal under international law.
Several ministers and MPs participated in the march to Eviatar, including the Minister of Public Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, a figure of the far-right, who declared that “the answer to terrorism is to build” more settlements.
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of at least 94 Palestinians, 19 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian, according to an AFP tally compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources.
These figures include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.