The Old City has been sealed off after fatal attacks
In a move that Israeli police themselves called “drastic,” security forces on Sunday barred Palestinians from entering Jerusalem’s Old City after last week’s fatal stabbing of an off-duty Israeli soldier and a well-known rabbi — an attack that left a Montreal family in mourning.
The unprecedented closure of the Old City to Palestinians comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “an all-out war against Palestinian terrorism.”
Sunday brought waves of arrests of Palestinians and violent demonstrations across the West Bank, with local media reporting that more than 70 Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets and live rounds during clashes.
Israeli police said the two-day closure of the Old City was intended to protect visitors arriving to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
“This is a drastic measure that’s being taken in order to make sure there are no further attacks during the Jewish festival, where you can see thousands of people visiting the Old City,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, according to The Associated Press.
Israel and the West Bank have been on edge since the deadly knife attack late Saturday and the fatal shooting of an Israeli couple driving in the West Bank on Thursday.
According to Israeli police, a Palestinian teenager attacked Aharon Benita, 22, an off-duty Israeli soldier, his wife and their young daughter near the Lions’ Gate in the Old City on Saturday night. The soldier was wearing civilian clothes. The couple had their twoyear-old son and an infant daughter in strollers
Hearing the cries of Benita’s wife, Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, 41, who lives in the Muslim quarter of the Old City, ran to confront the assailant.
Lavi and Benita were fatally stabbed. Benita’s wife, Adele, was seriously wounded. The couple’s twoyear-old son was lightly injured.
Benita’s brother, Matan, lives in Montreal, having married a Canadian woman, and their parents were visiting Canada after Matan’s wife gave birth 10 days ago, the family’s rabbi, Reuben Poupko, said Sunday.
“They’re heartbroken people who just lost their child. A young man lost his brother. Words can’t describe that kind of loss,” Poupko told the National Post.
The 19-year-old Palestinian assailant, Mohannad Halabi, was a law student studying at al-Quds University. He was shot dead at the scene by police.
His Facebook page warned that “the third intifada has begun” and suggested that the uprising was a reaction to Israeli provocations at the al-Aqsa mosque site, the raised esplanade in the Old City known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. It is a place holy to both.
His father, Shafeek, a plumber, said he was proud of his son. “He was a very smart kid with a strong personality. He wanted to be a lawyer to defend the Palestinian people against Israeli brutality,” he said.
Shafeek spoke as his children hung a large banner of the Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group, across the entrance of the family’s house in the village of Surda, a few miles north of Ramallah in the West Bank.
The family had already emptied their home of possessions, expecting the Israelis to carry out a demolition order.
Israeli security forces and Palestinian youths have fought at the front door of al-Aqsa mosque in recent weeks, and Israeli authorities have restricted access to the mosque by age and gender.
Israeli police said the Old City would be off-limits for 48 hours to all Palestinians who do not live, work or study there. Israelis and tourists would be welcome.
The walled Old City, less than half a square mile, was captured by Israeli forces during the 1967 war and annexed as part of the Jerusalem municipality. Most of the world considers the Old City occupied territory; Israel disputes this.
Early Sunday, Israeli police said, another Palestinian teenager stabbed and wounded a 15-year-old Israeli near the Old City’s Damascus Gate. Police shot the assailant dead.