ISeveral people were injured in a car attack in East Jerusalem. On Sunday, the Israeli police said that four of its members were injured in the attack in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Local rescue workers reported seven injuries.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld announced that the attacker had been arrested. He did not provide any further details about the attacker’s condition. According to a local journalist from the Jerusalem Post, the attacker is said to be Palestinian. The authorities have not yet commented on the identity.
East Jerusalem was the scene of violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police a week ago. The protests erupted due to the threat to expel about 30 Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which the Israelis claimed.
Since then, violence has escalated in the Middle East. The radical Islamist Hamas suddenly began firing thousands of rockets at Israel from Gaza. In response, the Israeli army has attacked hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip since Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will continue its attacks on Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip. In a televised address Sunday evening, Netanyahu said the military operation would continue „at full speed” because the radical Islamic organization had to pay a „heavy price” for the missile attacks for which it was responsible. This takes some time.
He rejected criticism of the destruction of a tall building in Gaza housing the offices of the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera TV. On Sunday, he said on US television, CBS, that because the extremist Islamist group Hamas had an office in the building, that was his „completely legitimate goal.” When asked if he had provided evidence of Hamas presence in the building in his phone call with US President Joe Biden on Saturday, he said, „We are passing this on through our intelligence officers.”
Guterres urges an end to the fighting
On Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of an „uncontrollable” crisis in the entire region. „This stupid episode of bloodshed, terror and destruction must be ended immediately,” Guterres said at the start of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the conflict in the Middle East on Sunday. „The fighting must stop. It must stop immediately.
Guterres said the violence that claimed nearly 200 lives within a week was „extremely horrific”. „It is likely that this will lead to an uncontrollable security and humanitarian crisis and the further strengthening of extremism, not only in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, but throughout the region.”