All Palestinian terrorists will be held to account, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Sunday following two shooting attacks in Jerusalem on Shabbat.
“Every terrorist will be brought to court or to the cemetery,” he said.
While Israel wants calm restored, he continued, it is nevertheless determined to quash terrorism.
“We will undertake offensive actions against those who try to hurt our children,” said Gallant. “We will fight forcefully and decisively against terrorists and their enablers—including, if needed, the demolition of the homes of terrorists or revoking the rights of the families of terrorists.
“We will not allow blood to be spilled. We will do what is necessary to bring them to justice,” said the defense minister.
He stressed, however, that Palestinians who reject the murder of Jews will be fully free to pursue better lives.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for new measures to combat terrorism, including expanding the number of civilian gun permits and revoking the identity cards and residency status of terrorists’ families.
In his opening remarks at a Security Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu noted that he had just visited those wounded in two terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. The first attack, outside a synagogue in the capital’s Neve Ya’akov neighborhood, left seven dead and three wounded on Friday. The second attack, on Saturday morning, left a father and son seriously wounded.
Israeli security forces on Sunday sealed off the home of the terrorist who perpetrated the shooting rampage on Friday night.
Alqam Khayri, 21, who was shot and killed by police, was a resident of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of a-Tur.
Authorities have also arrested more than 40 suspects in connection with the shooting, many of them relatives or acquaintances of the terrorist, who held an Israeli ID card.
Meanwhile, authorities on Sunday began the process of destroying illegal Arab structures in eastern Jerusalem, in accordance with a directive from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who ordered such steps immediately after Friday’s attack.
