7 Israeli Border Police officers are recovering from a car-ramming attack in Jerusalem yesterday.
The assault came amid clashes between security forces and Arabs in flashpoint east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah yesterday.
2 of the wounded officers were evacuated to hospital in moderate condition, while the others suffered “light” injuries. The Arab terrorist was shot dead at the scene.
The protestors were dispersed with crowd-control measures, including the firing of 2 stun grenades. Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai later arrived to inspect the area, which had been closed to civilians.
Over the past 24 hours, several more attacks have taken place on the West Bank against the backdrop of Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls campaign against Gaza rocket fire.
The Sheikh Jarrah attack came just hours after Palestinian terrorists opened fire at an Israeli vehicle outside the Palestinian town of Bani Na’im in the southern West Bank. One bullet hit the vehicle and the driver fled to the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. No injuries were reported in the incident.
On Saturday night, a Palestinian vehicle tried to ram soldiers at an IDF checkpoint south of Hebron. The troops opened fire at the car, killing the driver. Another passenger managed to escape.
In separate incident this morning, the IDF foiled another attempted car-ramming attack near Nablus in the West Bank. No troops were hurt in the incident and the suspect was also neutralized.
There has been an upsurge in domestic terrorism, including rising strife between Israel’s Arab and Jewish citizens.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referenced the unrest during his national address on Sunday.
“I welcome the trend of calm that we see among the Arab public,” he said, cautioning that “it is not absolute. We just had a ramming attack in Jerusalem. However, all in all, we have seen a decline in this trend of violence by the Arab public and this is very important among the Arab public. I have always said that it is not the entire public and not a majority of the public – but it is a significant minority, with which we must deal.”
The Israeli leader added that the Israel Security Agency (better known by its Hebrew acronym, the “Shabak” or “Shin Bet”) has “deployed reinforced units throughout the country and we have carried out hundreds of arrests. We are taking action against those who used violence and disturbed the peace – they will be punished.”
“Our goal is, first, to halt the violence. I hope that we are achieving this,” said Netanyahu, stressing that the government will work to later “rehabilitate the relations” between Jews and Arabs.
“We live together in this state and we need to get back on the track of coexistence, cooperation and partnership in the great success called the ‘State of Israel,’” he underscored.
This afternoon 56-year-old Israeli Yigal Yehoshua, who was hit in the head by a brick hurled by Arab rioters in Lod overnight last Tuesday, died of his injuries.