Terror back in Jerusalem as tensions rise in and outside of Israel
Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Anyone who attacks Israel will learn the state has an "iron will" to defend itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after a bus was bombed in Jerusalem killing a woman and wounding 35 other people. In the last two years, a combination of preventive security measures and tough action against attacks had preserved peace and security, but “Lately there are those trying to shatter that calm. They are trying to test our will and our determination,” he explained, but the government would act “vigorously, responsibly and prudently”.
Yesterday’s bus attack was the first major terrorist attack in Jerusalem since 2008, and the first one at the bus station since 2004. Bus bombings had become frequent in Jerusalem during the second Intifada, which started in 2000.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but some experts believe ‘Islamic Jihad’ is behind it.
The attack comes at a time of rising tensions in the area. Earlier on Wednesday, a man was wounded in Beersheba when two Grad Katyusha rockets fired from Gaza hit the southern city. Mortar rounds exploded in other southern Israeli communities without causing much damage.
Israel responded immediately with air strikes against Gaza, where a spokesman for Hamas pledged to restore calm after the recent rocket attacks.
"We will work to restore the field conditions that were prevalent over the last few weeks," Hamas spokesperson Taher al-Nunu said.
Another source of tensions is yesterday’s approval by the Knesset of two bills that critics consider discriminatory towards Israel’s Arab community.
The first one denies state funds and imposes fines on any municipality or organisation that marks the 1948 ‘Nakba’ (catastrophe), the term used by Palestinians to describe the defeat in the war that led to the creation of Israel.
The second law grants small communities the authority to reject admission to applicants that are perceived as not fitting into their social fabric.
Both bills were presented by the ultranationalist party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and raised a heated debate in the Knesset (parliament), led by Arab lawmakers who called them racist.
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21/07/2018 14:56
