(JNS and combined sources) Israel’s leadership vowed a swift response to the latest terror wave, while also offering condolences to the victims and their families.
“Israel is facing a deadly wave of Arab terrorism,” said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in a statement on Tuesday, March 29, adding that security forces are responding, and that “we will fight terror with perseverance, stubbornness and an iron fist. They will not move us from here. We will win.”
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that security forces will use “all means” to confront the wave of terror.
“We have been through difficult times as a people and as a country, amid waves of terror, and we have always won with determination and strength and so it will be this time as well,” he said on Twitter, adding that “the entire security establishment—the IDF, the Shin Bet and police—will work using all means to restore security to the streets of Israel and a sense of security to the citizens.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi ordered additional forces into Judea and Samaria. One report noted that police alert status is higher than it has been since last May’s 11-day conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip—“Operation Guardian of the Walls.”
With tensions already high due to the wave of attacks over the last week, when Jerusalem police received a report that two individuals were behaving in an “unusual and suspicious” manner near Machane Yehuda market on Wednesday, March 30, officers were immediately dispatched to the area, according to a police spokesman. Following a brief search, the suspects were located in a local butcher shop, police said.
When the officers approached they were “brutally” attacked by the suspects. One of the officers then opened fire at the suspects’ lower bodies, according to police. The suspects suffered light wounds, and were evacuated for medical treatment after being placed under arrest.
This followed a day when five people were killed in a terror attack in Bnei Brak, with a second shooting attack taking place in the nearby city of Ramat Gan. Police said these attacks were connected.
The shooter was killed by police, but a police presence remained as they believed there may have been another shooter at large.
A week ago, an Arab Israeli influenced by ISIS opened fire in the southern city of Beersheba, killing four people. Over the weekend, two 19-year-old border police officers were killed in a shooting attack in Hadera.
The ISIS official media outlet claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Hadera.
