PM convening security cabinet as West Bank violence widens

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was convening his security cabinet in Jerusalem on Monday night, after violence in the capital and West Bank continued unabated throughout the day.

A Palestinian teen was said killed by IDF troops in Bethlehem on Monday, the second such casualty in the space of 24 hours, as Palestinians threw stones, firebombs and burning tires at security forces in several locations. The violence comes on the heels of a series of terror attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank that have killed four Israelis in four days.

Netanyahu was to receive an update on the situation on the ground Monday evening, and the cabinet was expected to decide on further action to counter the violence. Among the measures planned by the prime minister are a widening of administrative detentions (arrest without trial), the demolition of terrorists’ homes and the boosting of security forces in flashpoint areas.

The prime minister has partly blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for inciting the escalation in violence. Abbas has alleged — including during his speech to the UN last Wednesday — that Israel is allowing “extremists” into the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount and that Israel plans to change the status quo regarding access to the contested holy site. Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected these claims.

Thousands of Israelis were also expected to protest outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on Monday evening, at the close of the Sukkot holiday, against what they believe is insufficient government action in the face of rising terrorism.

Germany on Monday voiced concern about the risk of a “new intifada,” three days ahead of Netanyahu’s visit to Berlin. “What possibly awaits us here is something like a new intifada,” said foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer. “That can’t be in anyone’s interest — it can’t be something anyone in Israel wants, or which any responsible Palestinian politician wants.

Netanyahu held a four-hour security meeting Sunday evening on the recent uptick in violence.

At the end of the meeting, Netanyahu announced that he has instructed security forces to “fast-track the razing of terrorists’ homes, expand the use of administrative detention against Palestinian rioters, reinforce the presence of security forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and ban those who incite [to terror] from the Old City and the Temple Mount.”

Israel is “waging a fight to the death against Palestinian terror,” the prime minister said.