Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, struggling domestically, vowed Monday night to "restore security" in his country after yet another outbreak of violence in the Middle East and two new deaths in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Benjamin Netanyahu also announced that he had reversed his decision announced at the end of March to dismiss his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who had publicly expressed concern about the division caused in the country by the government's justice reform project, and had asked for a pause in the process.

Wave of violence

While violence between Israelis and Palestinians has risen inexorably since the beginning of the year, after the inauguration of Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of December at the head of one of the most right-wing governments in Israel's history, the conflict has taken on a broader dimension in recent days.

Deadly attacks, rocket fire from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, followed by Israeli reprisals: the region has been in the grip of a wave of violence since the brutal eruption, on April 5, in the middle of Ramadan, of Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest site.

"Restoring calm and security"

"The government, under my leadership, will restore calm and security to our country," Netanyahu said. "We are acting on all fronts," he said.

"I promise you, we will reach all the vile terrorists who killed our citizens and they will be held accountable, without exception," the prime minister said after the emotion aroused in Israel by the death of three members of the same family in an attack committed Friday in the north of the occupied West Bank.

'Very heavy price'

Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem announced Monday afternoon the death of Lucy Dee, a 48-year-old British-Israeli, who was wounded in the attack that killed two of her daughters, aged 16 and 20.

Earlier, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohamed Fayez Balhan, was killed during an Israeli military incursion into the Palestinian refugee camp of Aqabat Jaber, near Jericho, which the army said was intended to "arrest a suspect".

The day after the intervention of the Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa Mosque (in the eastern part, annexed to Jerusalem), officially to "restore order" in the face of "extremists" barricaded with stones and fireworks rockets, about thirty rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israel, wounding one person and causing material damage.

Elan martial vs. bad polls

The Israeli army, which accuses the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, of being behind the shooting, responded by carrying out strikes on Gaza and southern Lebanon.

"We will not allow terrorist Hamas to establish itself in Lebanon," Netanyahu said Monday night. "We are still in the middle of the fight, we are ready for other strong actions on all fronts if necessary," he added, also threatening to make Syria pay a "very heavy price" in the event of a new rocket attack from its territory.

Benjamin Netanyahu made these martial remarks while he appears very weakened politically, with several polls showing the opposition winning in the event of elections today.

More settlements

On Friday evening, the prime minister announced the mobilization of reserve police units and military reinforcements, after a car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv that killed an Italian tourist, and the death of two Israeli-British sisters.

On Monday, several thousand Israeli settlers marched to Eviatar, a Jewish settlement not recognized by Israeli authorities in the northern West Bank, to demand its legalization, AFP journalists found.

Nearly three million Palestinians live in the West Bank. About 490,000 Jewish settlers also live in settlements that the UN deems illegal under international law.

Several ministers and deputies participated in the march to Eviatar, including Public Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right figure, who said that "the answer to terrorism is to build" more settlements.

Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of at least 94 Palestinians, 19 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli and Palestinian sources.

These figures include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, the majority of whom are civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.

  • World
  • Israel
  • Palestine
  • Middle East
  • Israeli-Palestinian conflict
  • Benyamin Netanyahou