First warning shots. Ten days after its unveiling, Washington's plan for an Israeli-Palestinian "peace" sparked violence on Wednesday, February 5 and Thursday, February 6, in Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories. Two isolated devastating attacks in the Holy City resulted in no casualties, and two military operations in the occupied territories escalated, killing three in Hebron and Jenin, including a Palestinian policeman.
Just before 2 a.m.Thursday, a man threw his car into a group of a dozen soldiers near the former Jerusalem train station in the south of the city on Thursday, wounding several, including one seriously. It is the first time in months that such an attack has taken place in Jerusalem. The police had not detected any warning signs. She saw in it Thursday an attack of opportunity, carried out by an isolated individual.
The man was captured on Thursday outside the city. Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu on the scene placed final responsibility on the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas: "This will bring you nothing, neither the stabbing, nor the (Attacks) the ram car, or the incitement to violence. "
Despite its threats, the Palestinian Authority has chosen not to end its security cooperation with Israeli forces until the Hebrew state translates Trump's "vision" into action. The protests remain sporadic and of low intensity in the territories, but each violent episode puts the security forces of the two parties to the limit. "It’s the deal of the century" (American) who created this climbing atmosphere and these tensions ", thus deplored, Thursday, the spokesman of Mr. Abbas, Nabil Abou Roudeina.
The same was true for a second attack, carried out on Thursday by a man who shot a policeman near the Lions Gate at the entrance to the Old Town, wounding him lightly in the hand before he was shot. Coming from Haifa, in the north of Israel, the assailant is said to have converted to Islam and was known to the police for other acts. Finally, in a third incident, a man shot at Israeli soldiers in Qalqiliya on Thursday in the northern territories, wounding one lightly before fleeing.
Rejection movement
Have the Israeli armed forces understood the rejection of the threats of annexation of the settlements in the West Bank territories conquered and occupied by Israel after the 1967 war, which Mr. Netanyahu repeated on Thursday evening? In Jenin, the army had chosen, Thursday before dawn, to demolish the house of a Palestinian activist, convicted in 2018 for killing a settler. Such a reprisal is usual – this house had already been demolished in April 2018, then rebuilt. But in this flammable context, it sparked a riot.
The military said it was hit by Molotov cocktail jets and a sniper. She replied, killing a student at the Istiqlal military academy, which trains Palestinian Authority police. According to the governor of Jenin, the young man, 19 years old, had thrown stones at the soldiers.
A Palestinian policeman was also killed by Israeli army fire on the sidelines of the clashes. He was standing in the doorway of a police station. The military ruled in a preliminary investigation that it did not pose a threat to soldiers operating in the city. His death represents a test for the hierarchy and cohesion of the Palestinian security forces, whose main security cooperation is to contain the movement of crowds around the Israeli forces. "We are not trying to escalate the situation, and we understand the complexity and the sensitivity of the situation"said an army spokesperson in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Finally in Gaza, the Israeli air force struck positions of Hamas, in power in the enclave Thursday, after a dozen rockets aimed at the south of Israel during the week. Hamas appears to allow the incidents to accumulate, while affirming its will not to break the unofficial truce indirectly negotiated with Israel for more than a year.
