After a long lull in Palestinian attacks against Israelis, which began after the Israeli army sealed off the administered territories from Israel proper, Palestinian militants have been stepping up the level of violence in recent days.
Shots were fired Monday night at a car driven by a Jewish couple in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. The shots missed, leaving no one hurt and causing no damage.
Police suspected the attackers came from the nearby West Bank town of Beit Jala, where a similar attack took place last month, slightly wounding a Russian immigrant. The army clamped a curfew on the Arab town, but no arrests were reported.
In another incident, at the el-Rom junction in northern Jerusalem, a Jewish guard at a private security company shot to death Munir Abu-Nijma, an Arab resident of a nearby neighborhood.
The guard who fired the fatal shot said he was being attacked by Arabs and was in serious danger when he fired.
However, relatives of the dead man said the guard fired his shots during a argument between drivers over who had the right of way. Another Arab was slightly wounded in the incident.
Meanwhile, a key leader of the Jewish settlers in the territories warned this week of possible civil strife if the government orders settlers to evacuate the territories as a part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Speaking at a symposium in Jerusalem, Benny Katzover, head of the Samaria regional council, said that in his view as many as 30 percent of the Jewish settlers could resort to arms if the “government does not weigh its moves sensibly.”
Katzover’s comments received a strong endorsement from Knesset member Gonen Segev of the right-wing Tsomet party.
Speaking during a visit of the right-wing parties to the West Bank city of Hebron, Segev said Jewish resistance to withdrawal from the territories would be much stronger than 30 percent of the population.
Environment Minister Yossi Sarid of the left-wing Meretz bloc said at the same symposium that he believes that once the peace agreements are formally signed, general elections should be held to endorse the accords.
He was confident that the agreements would win wide public support.
These comments were made as the town of Hebron was under curfew for the third consecutive day, following the weekend murder of soldier and yeshiva student Erez Shmuel, who was ambushed on his way to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
