JERUSALEM
— A Palestinian man was killed near a settlement in the West Bank
overnight Saturday, and Israeli settlers carried out dozens of attacks
targeting Palestinians across the occupied territory, according to
Palestinian media and officials, as violence showed no sign of abating
on the eve of a trip to the region by America’s top diplomat.
The
Israeli army said that the Palestinian man killed late Saturday was
seen outside Kdumim, a settlement in the northern West Bank, “armed with
a handgun … and was neutralized by the community’s civilian security
team.” Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, identified the man as
Karam Ali Salman, 18, a resident of Qusin village, near the northern
West Bank city of Nablus. The report said he was fatally shot by an
armed Israeli settler in circumstances that remained “unclear.”
Wafa
said at least 144 Israeli settler attacks — some minor rock-throwing
incidents, others much more violent — were reported on Saturday across
the West Bank, the occupied territory that Palestinians envision as part
of their future state. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities on Sunday began
demolishing Palestinian homes in retaliation for Friday’s synagogue
shooting and pledged an expansion of West Bank settlements, which could
further inflame an already volatile situation.
In
Masafer Yatta, in the south, settlers assaulted a Palestinian man; in
two villages near Ramallah, masked attackers torched a house and a car
and threw stones; in Nablus, settlers uprooted nearly 200 trees.
Outside
the northern village of Akraba, dozens of settlers established a new,
unauthorized outpost. They attacked the Palestinian landowners who
arrived at the scene, then injured a medic who came to assist, according
to Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group. The Israeli military did
not intervene, the report added.
There
has been an “unprecedented increase in the frequency of terror attacks
against Palestinian citizens and their property,” said Ghassan Daghlas, a
Palestinian official.
Early Sunday, Israeli security forces blocked access to the family home of the Palestinian gunman who killed seven people outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem on Friday night, sealing doors and windows. Authorities promised that the house would soon be demolished.
The
shooter, who was killed at the scene, has been identified as
21-year-old Khairi Alqam. Alqam was named after his grandfather, who was
fatally stabbed in 1998, allegedly by a Jewish attacker who was
arrested but never charged with the crime, the Israeli news site Ynet
reported.
As
Israeli security forces stood guard Sunday outside the four-story home,
which housed several generations of his family, neighbors gathered. One
man, Abu Jamal, a 50-year-old electrician, wondered aloud how the
Israelis would move bulldozers into the area to demolish such a large
structure.
Abu
Jamal said the atmosphere in Palestinian neighborhoods of East
Jerusalem was incendiary. “This new government is a radical government,”
he said. “They will keep putting more and more and more pressure on us —
until we explode.” He made a popping noise and pointed to his head.
At
an emergency cabinet meeting Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said: “Our response will be strong, fast and accurate. Whoever
tries to hurt us, we will harm them and anyone who helps them.”
Though
Israeli police believe Alqam acted alone, they have arrested at least
42 people in connection with the shooting, including members of his
immediate family. Security forces have fanned out across East Jerusalem
and the West Bank.
On
Saturday, another attack took place at an Israeli settlement in East
Jerusalem just outside the walls of the Old City, when a 13-year-old
Palestinian from a nearby neighborhood shot and wounded two Israelis.
The boy was apprehended by an armed civilian at the scene, according to
Israeli police.
Netanyahu’s
new government is the most right-wing in Israeli history, an alliance
of settler activists, religious conservatives and hard-line nationalists
who say that past actions to counter Palestinian violence have not been
harsh enough.
After
the shooting rampage outside the synagogue, Israeli authorities
announced new anti-terrorism proposals and a loosening of restrictions
on civilian gun ownership — stopping short of ordering retaliatory
military strikes.
At
a government meeting Sunday, far-right National Security Minister
Itamar Ben Gvir demanded that in exchange for the seven killed on
Friday, the government should, within seven days, authorize seven
illegal settlements in the West Bank, according to Israel’s Channel 12
News.
The
latest outburst of violence began Thursday during an early-morning
Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp, the deadliest operation in two
decades, Palestinian officials said. Another Palestinian man,
24-year-old Omar Tareq Saadi, died Sunday from injuries sustained during
the raid, bringing the death toll to ten.
Israeli
raids in the West Bank have escalated dramatically over the past year,
making 2022 the deadliest for Palestinians there since the United
Nations began systematically tracking deaths in 2005. A least 30
Palestinians have already been killed this year, according to the
Palestinian Health Ministry.
The
violence coincides with prearranged visits to the region by U.S.
officials, who have for weeks been warning of an escalation of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s
scheduled visit Monday and Tuesday will include meetings with Netanyahu
in Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West
Bank, the State Department said.
U.S.
administration officials have scrambled to figure out how to avoid
dealing directly with far-right Israeli ministers, including Ben Gvir —
who has been convicted multiple times for inciting anti-Arab hatred and
who rose from the political fringes to national security minister with
promises to enforce the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists and
enable Israeli soldiers to shoot at rock-throwing Palestinians.
On
Sunday, Israeli forces demolished a house in the East Jerusalem
neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabir built by Rateb Matar, a 49-year-old
construction worker who said he had no ties to the recent violence. He’s
been in a legal battle with the Jerusalem municipality since 2017,
racking up thousands of dollars in fines and fees for illegal
construction.
“According
to the city we are all here illegally, all the houses,” he said. Matar
said he believed his house was demolished so that Ben Gvir could show
his supporters he was doing something.
“It’s all him. He gave the order. He signed the paper. He wanted this on the TV,” Matar claimed.
Late
Saturday, a small crowd of Israeli protesters gathered near an
intersection leading to a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
One of the young men said they wanted to “let the terrorists know we are
here.”
As
they began to surround a car, police shouted at the driver, who
appeared to be Palestinian, to roll up his window and keep moving. The
police then pushed the crowd away as they banged on the vehicle. One man
carried a sign, in Hebrew, reading “revenge!”
Ayreh
Blumberg, 66, a plumber from the nearby settlement of Ma’ale Adumim who
participated in the demonstration, said anyone supporting Palestinian
attackers, including family members, should be deported.
“I think they should be given a one-way ticket out of Israel,” he said.
Among
the victims of the Friday shooting rampage near the synagogue was Asher
Natan, 14, who was buried on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives late Saturday
night.
Also
killed were a married couple in their 40s, Eli and Natalie Mizrahi, who
were buried side by side early Sunday in a hilltop cemetery in the
Israeli city of Beit Shemesh.
During
the funeral, several mourners said their deaths were part of a larger,
divine plan for Israel. One griever read from scripture and said that
“of course, anyone who was murdered in the name of God, and absolutely
if he was murdered by Palestinians, it is in the name of God, then there
is purpose in that terrible tragedy.”
“The
terrorist came to the synagogue with the knowledge that he would kill
Jews only for the reason that they were Jews,” said Israeli Economy
Minister Nir Barkat.
He
was interrupted by Eli Mizrahi’s sister, who yelled: “Get out of here.
You’re talking like that because there’s media here. You’re putting on a
show!”