Netanyahu visits Adele Banita in hospital, vows to ‘smash’ terrorism
PM says he told stabbing victim, whose husband Aharon was killed in Old City attack Saturday, that Israel using ‘a strong hand’ to defeat murderers
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he vowed to a bereaved wife Monday night to smash the current wave of terrorism, in which four Israelis were killed in two separate attacks on Thursday and Saturday.
Netanyahu was speaking after visiting Adele Banita, whose husband Aharon was stabbed to death in a terror attack in Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday night, at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem. Adele was badly injured in the attack, and the couple’s baby son Matan was lightly injured.
“I wished them a full recovery on behalf of the entire people of Israel,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook Monday night.
He said Israel was “using a strong hand against the terrorists and those who incite them,” and “we are active on all fronts. Let’s make this clear,” he promised, “just as we’ve smashed previous waves of terrorism, we will also smash this wave of terrorism.”
Netanyahu also convened his security cabinet Monday night to discuss measures to counter the escalation of the Palestinian conflict, and said he was sending thousands of additional police and soldiers into Jerusalem and West Bank areas in order to restore security for Israelis.
Outside his residence Monday night, meanwhile, thousands of Israelis demanded firmer action against terrorism, with ministers from Netanyahu’s own likud party among the speakers.
Three Palestinian teenagers were reported killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on Sunday and Monday.
READ: ‘I yelled for help and they spat at me,’ says Adele Banita, victim of Jerusalem attack
