Israel bars all Palestinians after Tel Aviv attack

Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a Tel Aviv cafe on Wednesday night, killing four Israelis and wounding five others.

The recent Israeli ban on Palestinian access to family, work and other resources within Israeli territory may increase an already volatile situation, France Foreign Minister warned.

The restrictions will deny entry to 83,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and some 200 residents of the Gaza Strip into Israel, Press TV reported.

The town has been completely sealed by Israeli forces, with no Palestinians allowed to leave except for humanitarian or medical cases.

COGAT, an Israeli defense body, said Thursday that 83,000 permits have been frozen for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to visit family in Israel, attend Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem or travel overseas via Israel’s Tel Aviv airport.

Over the last eight months – and including the assault in Tel Aviv on Wednesday – Palestinians have carried out dozens of attacks on civilians and security forces, mostly stabbings, shootings and auto ramming assaults that have killed 32 Israelis and two Americans. Around 100,000 Palestinians performed the first Friday prayer of the Holy Month at the Noble Sanctuary in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the Israeli regime forces are preventing Palestinians from leaving and entering the West Bank village of Yatta, which the regime’s police say is home to the attackers behind the Tel Aviv shooting.

Police also announced plans to deploy thousands of additional officers during Friday prayers at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque, where thousands of people are expected. Israeli encroachments on the mosque were the catalyst for months of stabbings, car-rammings and other attacks by West Bank residents that have left more than 200 Palestinians and almost 30 Israelis dead.

“My husband’s big fear, he was sure he would come back to find us all dead”, said the woman, who was identified only as the daughter of a former Israeli police chief.

Palestinians have used them “in a number of terrorist attacks over the past few months”, Rosenfeld said.

Violence since October has killed at least 207 Palestinians, 32 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

MEE contacted an Israeli security forces spokesperson on Friday for a response to Reynolds’ comments but had not received any by the time of publication.

Here’s an ugly footnote to Wednesday’s terror attack in Tel Aviv: The two gunmen now automatically qualify for monthly salaries from the Palestinian Authority.

In the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement condemning violence, but made no direct reference to the Tel Aviv shootings.