Gunmen attack Israel bus station, one shot dead
An Israeli soldier was killed last night (Sunday) and at least 11 others injured in an attack in the southern city of Beersheba, in one of the boldest assaults yet in the latest wave of violence.
A Palestinian man grabbed an Israeli soldier’s gun and started shooting at the crowd at the bus station, Israeli police said.
A video circulating online (WARNING – graphic footage) shows that a mob also beat Zarhum, who later died in hospital.
The attack came as Israel further tightened security around the country, highlighted by the construction of a barrier separating Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem.
Israel has struggled to contain near-daily attacks by Palestinian assailants.
The municipality said the wall would eventually cover a 300-metre strip, stressing it would not be peripheral and it was being placed where “there is a history of stone and firebomb throwing at Jewish homes and cars”. Find us on Facebook too!
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Germany this week. “They should not be shooting to kill in the way that we have seen in a number of cases”.
Israeli police stand guard as Palestinian Muslims pray on the streets of the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in East Jerusalem during the Friday prayers following restrictions by Israeli police preventing Palestinians under 40 years old from entering the Temple Mount, on October 16, 2015.
Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, chipping away at territory sought for a future Palestine.
Police shot the assailant dead, and initially reported there had been a second gunman.
Joseph’s Tomb, inside a compound in the Palestinian refugee camp of Balata in Nablus, has been the scene of recurring violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Pope Francis on Sunday appealed for an end to violence in the Holy Land, urging Israelis and Palestinians to take concrete steps to ease tensions.
The attack occurred at approximately 7:30 pm in the Central Bus Station in one of Israel’s largest southern cities. It soon spread to Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem and then to the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.
What’s behind the latest unrest? Palestinians say the violence is in response to anger over the Jerusalem holy site and also almost 50 years of occupation and lack of hope for the future. The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions National Committee has black-listed complicit global companies and Israeli companies that participate in Israel’s infrastructure of oppression. Israel repeatedly dismissed the rumours as incitement.
The incident comes just a day after five Palestinians were shot dead during alleged stabbing attacks – three of them in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Both Israel and the Palestinian authorities have accused one another of doing nothing to protect each other’s communities. In recent days, several new roadblocks and checkpoints have been installed in Palestinian sections of Jerusalem.
There is a real sense of hopelessness amongst many Israelis and Palestinians. With peace talks moribund, a few observers have questioned whether we are now seeing a third. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the arson attack and appointed an investigative committee.