Israel has announced plans to provide illegal settlers with firearms and weapons in response to the recent retaliatory operations by Palestinians, which killed at least seven illegal settlers in occupied East Jerusalem, amid escalating violence in the occupied territories.
Speaking after an emergency meeting late on Saturday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a ‘strong, swift and precise’ response to the latest retaliatory attacks, and said his cabinet, comprised of a group of hardline right-wing politicians, had decided to expedite gun permits for Israelis to defend against Palestinian street attacks.
Netanyahu also announced that his cabinet had decided on a series of steps to ‘strengthen settlements’ in the coming week, without providing further details.
He said that more soldiers and police would be deployed, and security forces would embark on a series of operations to gather intelligence, confiscate illegal firearms and carry out arrests.
Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right security minister, said after the cabinet meeting that he would soon propose a law allowing the ‘death penalty’ against perpetrators of such attacks.
The Israeli threats came hours after two retaliatory operations.
In a shooting operation carried out on Friday near a synagogue in an illegal Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem seven illegal settlers were killed and 10 others wounded.
Two illegal settlers were also injured in another shooting attack in the same area on Saturday.
Last Thursday, the Israeli regime’s forces raided the city of Jenin and its neighbouring refugee camp in the north of the Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank, gunning down nine Palestinians.
Palestinian resistance groups have hailed the retaliatory operation near the synagogue, as a ‘direct response’ to the deadliest Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank in years.
The Israeli raid was part of a recent escalation in its violence, especially in light of the new extremist far-right cabinet headed by Netanyahu and his affiliates.
Over the past months, Israel has ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and cities throughout the occupied territories. Dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.
Most of the raids have focused on Nablus and Jenin, where Israeli forces have been trying to stifle a growing Palestinian resistance in the occupied cities.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces opened direct fire on Palestinian journalists in the flashpoint town of Beita, near the West Bank city of Nablus, as tensions continue to escalate in the occupied territories.
Wahaj Bani Moufleh said he and his colleague Mohammad Sumrin were covering the closure of the town’s entrance with cement blocks by the Israeli military on Saturday when the regime’s troops directly shot live gunfire in their direction.
The shooting took place as the journalists were wearing easily-recognisable press jackets.
Sumrin said that a number of soldiers first fired teargas canisters at a group of Palestinian youths, then came to where the journalists were and opened fire in their direction but over their heads.
The soldiers forced them to pull back immediately and go into the town to avoid being hit, he added.
This is not the first time the Israeli military has directly targeted journalists while they were covering the occupying regime’s crimes in the occupied territories.
In May last year, Israeli forces intentionally targeted veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering their raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The 51-year-old journalist was murdered in cold blood as she was wearing press attire. Her tragic death sent shock waves across the region, drawing global condemnation.
Multiple investigations by independent organisations and media outlets concluded that Abu Akleh was deliberately shot by Israeli forces.
Saturday’s development took place after an Israeli settler opened fire and injured five people in Beita.
Israeli troops then placed the cement boulders at the entrance of the town, blocking the movement of people instead of arresting the attacking settler.
Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settler activities in the north of the West Bank, warned that settlers have stepped up their attacks against Palestinians.
‘There are indications of settlers escalating their attacks and terrorism against Palestinians and their property,’ he said.
Over the past months, Israel has ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and cities throughout the occupied territories. As a result, dozens of Palestinians have been killed and many others arrested.
More than 170 Palestinians, including at least 30 children, were killed across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem last year. In January 2023 alone, at least 38 Palestinians, including five children, were killed.
Meanwhile, an independent Irish Member of the European Parliament (MEP) has criticised the European Union (EU) for its silence on Israeli crimes, as the Tel Aviv regime.
Mick Wallace made the remarks in a post on his Twitter account on Saturday, after the EU released its Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2022, in which there was no mention of the plight of the Palestinians.
He denounced the annual report as ‘selective’, noting that it has ignored the persecution and killing of Palestinians by the Israeli regime.
Pointing to the fact that at least 150 Palestinians were killed by the regime forces last year alone, Wallace condemned the bloc’s failure to mention the issue in its report.
‘How can we allow crimes to be committed against Palestinians every day and remain silent?
‘These crimes would not have happened without our complicity,’ he said.
- Tens of thousands of protesters have held a massive rally again in Tel Aviv in the occupied territories against Netanyahu’s planned judicial reforms, which they say aim to weaken the regime’s supreme court in favour of the Israeli prime minister and his extremist cabinet.
The protest was held on Saturday, marking another chapter in the weekly demonstrations that have been taking place in the city and elsewhere throughout the occupied territories, since Netanyahu announced his far-right cabinet last month.
The participants banged on drums, shouted anti-regime slogans through megaphones, and portrayed Netanyahu in prison uniform and handcuffs.
A man was seen holding up a banner that read: ‘Slipping into darkness’.
‘We came to demonstrate against an illegitimate’ cabinet, said an NGO worker who vowed that the protests ‘will not stop’.
‘I believe that what the current prime minister is doing is wrong… I think we are in a very dangerous situation…,’ said another.
Netanyahu cobbled together his cabinet late last month, allying himself with the most far-right parties across the Knesset (Israeli parliament).
In order to secure the loyalty and partnership of the extremist politicians, he has pledged to further their desired agendas, including by ‘overhauling’ the regime’s judicial apparatus by taking away the supreme court’s ability to nullify the decisions that are made by the either the cabinet or Knesset.
Meanwhile, more than 130 hi-tech companies and businesses will go on strike today (Tuesday) to protest against the proposed legislation to make changes to the Israeli justice system.
Netanyahu is also accused of trying to effect the changes as means of fighting off a set of corruption charges he was slapped with during the twilight of his previous mandate as premier in 2019.
He has dismissed the protests as a refusal by his leftist opponents to accept the results of last November’s election, which gave him the right to announce the cabinet.
He claims the judicial reforms are needed to hamstring what he calls ‘activist judges,’ who could stand up to the regime’s decisions.
This was the fourth straight week that huge demonstrations have been held against Netanyahu’s extremist cabinet and his political agenda.
