Israel began burying its dead on Wednesday and tracking down relatives of a Palestinian who carried out an attack that killed five people near Tel Aviv, the third in a week in the country, raising fears of a new “wave” of violence.
On Tuesday evening, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank opened fire on crowds driving through the Orthodox Jewish town of Bnei Brak and the neighboring town of Ramat Gan, before being shot dead by security forces.
The attack killed five people, including two Ukrainian workers, who arrived in Israel before the recent wave of refugees linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and an Israeli Arab policeman, Amir Khoury, who took part in the operation to shoot the assailant and who has been called a “hero” by the government.
On Wednesday, the funerals of the other two victims, Yaakov Shalom and Rabbi Avishai Yehezkel, took place in Bnei Brak. Yehezkel “got married a year and a half ago. He had a two-year-old son and his wife was pregnant,” David Numa, one of his relatives, told Agence France-Presse.
The bodies of the two Ukrainians, whose identity has not been confirmed, must be repatriated to their country, while the funeral oration of the policeman, from the town of Nof Hagalil, near Nazareth (north), is planned Thursday.
“Abyss of Hate”
In the wake of the attack, the army deployed reinforcements to the occupied West Bank and increased arrests on Wednesday, including family members of the perpetrator of the attack, Dia Hamarshah, a Palestinian from the village of Yaabad, in the northern West Bank, who spent four years in Israeli prisons.
The armed Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip but also with supporters in Israel, Jerusalem and the West Bank, welcomed the attack, however strongly condemned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the UN, France , the United States and Egypt, in particular.
Earlier this week, Mr. Abbas spoke with the King of Jordan, the country responsible for Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, in the hope of avoiding excesses during large gatherings in the holy city linked to the month of fasting. Ramadan which is due to start this weekend.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog traveled to Jordan on Wednesday to meet King Abdullah II. “The fact that Muslim leaders meet Jewish and Israeli leaders is a replacement solution to the abyss of hatred,” the Israeli president said on the spot, according to his services.
Last year, clashes in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian portion of the holy city occupied by Israel, led to bloody clashes on the esplanade of the Mosques, then to an 11-day war between Hamas and Israel.
“Israel is facing a wave of deadly Arab terrorism,” said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, also referring to the two previous attacks, on March 22 and Sunday, perpetrated by Israeli Arabs linked to the jihadist movement.
In a statement released Wednesday night, he called on Israelis with guns not to go out without him. He also reported “more than 200 interrogations and arrests”.
For his part, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a press conference that he had authorized the administrative detention of two residents of East Jerusalem, members of Hamas, and considered calling in army reservists. “It will take the time it takes, but we will put an end to this wave of violence,” added Mr. Gantz.
From Hamas to the IS group?
If last year’s war pitted the Jewish state against Hamas, this time the authorities fear to see also attacks inspired by the jihadist organization Islamic State or linked to it
On Sunday, in Hadera, in northern Israel, two policemen were killed in a shooting claimed by the EI group. Police identified the assailants, who were shot, as Israeli Arab members of the IS group from Umm al-Fahm, an Arab town in northern Israel.
On March 22, in Beersheva, a large city in the southern Negev desert, four Israelis were killed in a stabbing and car-ramming attack perpetrated by a teacher sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for planning to travel to Syria to fight within the IS group.
On Wednesday, police also announced the arrest of an 18-year-old man in Rahat, Negev, suspected of being a member of the Islamic State group.