Swift punitive steps pledged against Palestinians

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced a series of punitive steps against Palestinians in the wake of the deadly synagogue attack in Jerusalem.

In a statement issued after the weekly cabinet meeting last Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s security agency would explore “additional deterrent measures regarding the families of terrorists that express support for terrorism”, including the revocation of Jerusalem residency rights and Israeli citizenship, and legislation allowing employers to dismiss workers who have “supported terrorism” without the need for a hearing.

Other actions outlined by the cabinet include stripping family members of attackers of social security and health benefits, changes in policy to make it easier to demolish homes of Palestinians who carry out terrorist attacks, and the “strengthening of settlements” in the occupied West Bank, on which no further details were given.

All the measures are illegal under international law, and likely to inflame tensions with the Palestinian public and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which controls parts of the occupied West Bank, at a time when the region stands perilously close to escalation.

Last Friday’s shooting followed the deadliest single Israeli army raid in the West Bank in decades. The unusually fierce attack on militants in the Jenin refugee camp left nine Palestinians dead, including two civilians, and triggered a wave of tit-for-tat violence.

Several more incidents were reported in the wake of the synagogue attack, including the shooting and wounding of two people near Jerusalem’s Old City by a 13-year-old Palestinian, the hospitalisation of four Palestinians attacked by an Israeli settler near Nablus, and a shooting at a settler restaurant near Jericho last Saturday in which no one was hurt, but the assailant was killed.

Last Sunday, an armed Palestinian man who approached a settlement in the Nablus area was shot dead, and houses and cars were set alight in Palestinian villages near Ramallah.

The prime minister also announced that his administration would work on legislation making it easier for Israeli citizens to obtain weapons permits, saying that the step would reduce violence because “we have seen, time and again … that heroic, armed and trained civilians save lives”.

Israel was not seeking escalation, Netanyahu said, but would provide a “powerful, swift and precise” response to last Friday’s attack in Jerusalem. Five additional army battalions were deployed to the contested city and the West Bank in anticipation of more copycat and “price tag” attacks.

The PA president, Mahmoud Abbas, blamed Israel for the spike in violence. In the aftermath of the Jenin raid, the PA said it would suspend security cooperation with Israel – a step it has taken with limited success in the past.

Last Sunday, Israeli police sealed off and prepared to demolish the family home of the synagogue gunman, Alqam Khayri. A total of 42 people, including family members, have been arrested in relation to the incident.

The synagogue shooting is an early test for Netanyahu’s newly re-elected far-right government , which campaigned on promises to make Israelis safer after a string of Palestinian knife and gun attacks last spring. Elements of the new government have also vowed to annex the West Bank and expand Jewish control of Jerusalem’s holy Temple Mount complex – often a flashpoint for violence.