JERUSALEM—Israel and the West Bank appeared to teeter on the edge of a new intifada—a Palestinian uprising—after two Jews were stabbed to death Saturday night in Jerusalem’s Old City and the wife of one seriously wounded as they returned from prayers at the Western Wall while a 15-year-old Israeli was stabbed and moderately wounded elsewhere in Jerusalem by another knife wielder. The attacks came two days after an Israeli couple was shot to death in their car on the West Bank as their four young children sat in the rear seat.
In the two stabbing incidents in Jerusalem, the assailants, both young Palestinians, were shot to death by police. The 19-year-old who carried out the Old City killings found a gun carried by one of the dead men and exchanged fire with police who arrived at the scene before being killed. The other assailant was fatally shot as he fled the scene, still carrying a knife, police said.
The weekend incidents came against a background of widespread throwing of rocks and firebombs at Israeli cars and homes in the West Bank and Jewish neighborhoods adjoining Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.
Arab unrest is linked to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount where Palestinians claim that Israel is altering visiting arrangements in ways that harm the status of Muslims there. The site is holy to both Jews and Muslims. Many observers believe that a deeper reason for the unrest is the absence of any political movement that holds out the prospect of an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
Police on Sunday barred entrance to the Old City for the next two days to Palestinians who do not live there. The assailant who killed the two men in the Old City lived on the West Bank. Hundreds of police have been redeployed to the city from around he country. The army has also sent four infantry battalions into the West Bank following Thursday night’s killing of the Israeli couple, who live in West Bank settlements.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanytahu returned Sunday afternoon from New York where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly last Thursday. He met immediately with security officials for an evaluation of the situation. He is to meet Monday night with his cabinet following the end of the Sukkot holiday.
Right-wing ministers called for a sharp reaction to the Palestinian violence, including mass arrests and construction of new settlements. They called for "unleashing" the army. Security experts, however, disagree about whether or not Israel is on a slippery slope leading inevitably to a return to mass Palestinian unrest, terror attacks, and suicide bombings such as Israel experienced for years after the second intifada broke out in 2000. "So far," said a defense ministry source, "the West Bank public has not taken to the streets en masse. (The rock throwing has been carried out almost exclusively by youths.) We must take care not to strangle them economically and must deal with terrorists without harming the population too much. Otherwise we may have a third intifada on our hands." (The first intifada broke out in 1987 and lasted several years.)
The first suggestion that a guiding hand might now be involved in the unrest—hitherto seen as spontaneous—was last Thursday’s killing of the settler couple. Their car was hit in a planned ambush and the killers verified that the couple was dead before leaving the scene. They then disappeared into the warrens of Nablus. In little more than 24 hours, security officials said that "significant progress" had been made in the case and that a number of persons had been detained.
Much depends now on whether the Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas will authorize its security forces to continue cooperation with Israeli security, a significant factor in inhibiting the spread of terror cells. If they choose not to, Israel is likely to reimpose roadblocks throughout the West Bank and stage frequent house-to-house searches.