Israel to crack down on Jewish extremists

On the other hand, the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, alongside several other groups called for avenging the killing of the baby – who was burned alive when his home was set on fire on Friday morning – by launching armed attacks against Israelis.

On Thursday, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed revelers at a gay pride parade in Jerusalem, wounding 6 people, including a 16-year-old girl who died of her wounds Sunday.

Every motion that has become the UN Security Council that sanctions Israel for one act of brutality or another, criticises an Israeli plan to build colonies in occupied East Jerusalem, or condemns Israel for waging three brutal air and ground wars against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the past seven years has amounted to nothing. Why?

Ya’alon has also informed the Shin Bet intelligence agency that he approves using administrative detention to crack down on suspected nationalist extremists, according to a second official.

A senior security official told Israel Radio that there is no choice but to treat the suspects of the attack as having committed a hate crime against Palestinians, just as is done with Palestinians suspected of committing attacks.

Administrative detention allows for arrests without charges and enables the incarceration of suspects for undefined periods of time without sufficient evidence to try them.

Israel has been accused of abusing the procedure to keep militants behind bars without trial.

Grafitti left on the building suggested it was a “price tag” attack – a retaliation for action taken against Israeli settlements.

The separate attacks have put a spotlight on Jewish extremists, while the firebombing further inflamed tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, with clashes breaking out in various cities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “promised that no Palestinian state would be established as long as he remains in office, an election-eve reversal aimed at pulling the embattled leader up from behind in a tight race”, reported media outlets. On Sunday, he spoke of “zero tolerance” for such acts. “The arson is a result of Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank“.

At a rally on Saturday night in Jerusalem Rivlin said: “A blatant disregard for the rule of law, for human dignity, for a love of mankind, for a love of Israel, and freedom of opinion, has spread within us and is wreaking havoc”.