“We are dealing with a new wave of terror,” far-right Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement before the meeting. “As in other waves, we will prevail.” Defense Secretary Benny Gantz announced that he had ordered 1,000 troops to reinforce the police force and that Israel’s military presence in the Palestinian territories had been strengthened. The attacks come at a dangerous time. Next month, a rare convergence of Ramadan for Muslims, Easter for Jews and Easter for Christians is expected to escalate tensions, with people out of work and on the streets. Israel strictly controls access to the holy sites of Jerusalem for all three religions, something that has led to controversy in the past. This holiday also precedes a series of delicate anniversaries in the coming weeks. Some, such as Israel’s Independence Day and the Palestinian Nakba’s celebration of their deportation, are decades old. Others are fresher, such as the one-year anniversary of the May 11 conflict that killed more than 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel. In the aftermath of Tuesday’s shooting in Bnei Brack on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, the white leather seats of a car were stained with blood, as were the front tiles of a nearby grocery store, near multiple packages of Coca-Cola bottles and a crunchy package. The victims were a different mix – two ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents, Yaakov Shalom, 36, and Avishai Yehezkel, 29. two unnamed Ukrainians living in Israel as construction workers. and Amir Khoury, 32, a Christian Arab police officer involved in a scuffle with the perpetrator. Police identified the perpetrator as Diaa Armashah, 27, of Palestine in the Occupied West Bank. He had arrived in Bnei Brack with an M-16 rifle and opened fire on cars, cyclists and balconies. Amateur video footage showed a man wearing black walking down a street with a long gun as people ran to leave. At one of the victim’s funeral on Wednesday, Ovadia Yehezkel said his brother, Avishai, had used his body to protect his two-year-old son in a stroller. “You took care of your son. “You did not give up,” Ovadia said in a eulogy, according to the Times of Israel. Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday arrested five Palestinians allegedly involved. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a group representing current and former Palestinian prisoners, said the detainees were relatives of Amarshah. The Bnei Brak bloodshed has raised the total death toll in Israel in recent days to 11, the highest number of people killed by militants in such a short time outside of war for several years. Last week, an attack on the southern city of Beersheba, in which four people were killed in a stabbing and car bomb attack, was carried out by an Arab citizen of Israel. On Sunday, an Arab assailant resident of a town in the north of the country shot and killed two police officers in Khandera, a town north of Tel Aviv, before being shot by other police officers. Both attacks were carried out by Islamic State, an organization not known to have a large presence inside the country, but which Israeli and Palestinian authorities fear could exert increased influence. Amos Harel, Haaretz’s military and defense correspondent, said Tuesday’s attack – which he said may have been a “copy” attack by a sympathizer inspired by last week’s attacks – was “Israel ‘s worst fear. reality”. “On three different occasions, terrorists managed to reach the heart of the cities inside Israel and carry out massacre campaigns unhindered,” he wrote. “None of the attacks were preceded by intelligence warnings. For now, the terrorists seem to be one step ahead of the security services, which still seem to be feeling in the dark. “Israelis’ sense of personal security has been severely damaged.” He added: “In the coming days, we will probably see more stormy demonstrations, calls for revenge and possibly attacks on Palestinian and Israeli Arabs. “Similar things happened last May during the Hamas-Israel war in the Gaza Strip.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank, condemned the attack on Tuesday night. “The killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians will only lead to a further deterioration of the situation, and we are all working for stability,” Abbas said in a statement. Earlier this week, Israel hosted a summit of Arab foreign ministers from Morocco, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Negev desert. Israel’s emerging ties to former Arab enemies, while continuing to control the lives of the millions of Palestinians living in the occupied territories, have led to a sense of despair and anger among Palestinians.
