Netanyahu announces plans to arm Israelis after Jerusalem attack
In response to the rising violence in the occupied Palestinian territory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to make it simpler for Israelis to obtain firearms. This move is viewed as “collective punishment” and may lead to increased violence.
After calling a meeting of his security cabinet, which was populated by extreme MPs, in response to two shootings, including one in occupied East Jerusalem, Netanyahu announced the decision late on Saturday.
In the Friday shooting outside the East Jerusalem synagogue, seven people died.
The weekend shootings occurred near the conclusion of a month of escalating hostilities and come after an Israeli raid that left nine Palestinians dead in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and gunfire exchanges between Israel and Gaza.
32 Palestinians had been slain by Israeli soldiers this month in total.
Israel had not recently conducted a raid of the magnitude of its operation in Jenin, but it is a part of increased military incursions by the Israeli army into the occupied West Bank, which have resulted in the deaths of at least 200 Palestinians.
Netanyahu pledged on Saturday to speed up the process for Israeli citizens to obtain firearm licences and to intensify measures to gather “illegal firearms.” The residences of the alleged attackers will also be sealed right away before being demolished, he continued, “in order to extract an additional price from those who support terrorism.”
Later, his office announced that social security benefits for the assailants’ families would also be terminated.
Additionally, it made vague promises of fresh actions to “strengthen” illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
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