After meeting with the country's top security officials at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv last Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed all security forces to accelerate the demolition of homes owned by Palestinians who attacked Israelis. Netanyahu said that the speeding up of the demolition is one of the steps to curb the wave of terrorist attacks.
In a report from Haaretz, the four-hour long meeting was attended by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, and Shin Bet Chief Yoram Cohen.
Netanyahu has also instructed his forces to step up administrative detentions and to deploy more forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
According to the news from the Orange County Register, Yisrael Katz, Netanyahu's minister of intelligence and atomic energy, has told the Army Radio that, "Israel may have to consider a military operation to counter rising violence after Palestinian entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, where violence has been rising in recent weeks, was restricted. Israel's top ministers are expected to meet after sundown on Monday to discuss further steps."
The Israeli-Palestinian violence has been on the go since mid-September amidst clashes at an Old City shrine, a place considered to be holy for both Jews and Muslims.
Haaretz also reported that there are numerous attacks and that many from both sides are hurt due to the uprising tension between the two nations.
A one-minute video was released by armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad showing a member building a belt bomb who was getting ready to commit a suicide bombing.
Mohammed al-Hindi, a senior from the Jihad group said in a statement, "A new intifada has started against the Israeli occupation, and all attempts to stop it will fail."
A member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, Hanan Ashrawi, is seeking help from the United Nations to offer Palestinians international protection during the intensification of the violence that is "threatening to engulf not just Palestine and Israel, but the whole region as well."
