Another Distressing Day for Israelis and Palestinians

On Thursday, October 23, Israelis and Palestinians experienced another distressing day; on one hand, the intense fear of Jews from daily attacks by Palestinians and Arabs residing in Israel continues, and on the other hand, the security measures taken by the Israeli government to reduce terrorism have had little effect, with many Palestinians refraining from going to work in Israeli cities due to concerns about the reactions of Israeli security forces. According to Israeli media reports, early Thursday morning, a train traveling from Tel Aviv to Haifa suddenly stopped after several Jewish girls shouted about a 'suspicious' Arab, leading an officer to fire warning shots; several panicked passengers were injured due to the ensuing chaos. The police and security forces investigated the individual described as 'suspicious' and found him innocent, releasing him. However, at the same time, extensive searches by thousands of police and security forces for two suspected Palestinians in the heart of Tel Aviv and Givatayim, aided by helicopters, led to the closure of many highways and roads in the area, including the largest shopping center in Israel for a period. The Israeli police announced that they had received credible security information that two Palestinians from East Jerusalem were dispatched for a terrorist act in Tel Aviv or a nearby metropolitan area. After nearly two and a half hours of extensive searches, which created significant fear among residents of the Tel Aviv suburbs, the police announced that they had arrested the two Palestinians and referred their investigations to Israel's internal security agency. A Palestinian girl who had texted her family saying, 'You will soon see me on television,' was arrested on Wednesday evening on a train in Beersheba. The Israeli police stated that this girl had 'confessed' to her intention to carry out a knife attack with the aim of becoming a 'martyr.' The relative calm of the early hours of Wednesday, October 22, was disrupted around 5 PM by a knife attack from a Palestinian in the area between East and West Jerusalem, resulting in the shooting and death of this Palestinian by security forces. It was revealed that, like many other incidents, the perpetrator of this attack was a 14-year-old teenager. Two hours later, a 20-year-old Palestinian attacked a 72-year-old woman with a knife in the central terminal area of West Jerusalem, injuring her, and when he attempted to board a bus to attack passengers, he was shot dead by a police officer at the bus steps. For several hours, intense fear in this crowded area, along with rumors of another 'armed terrorist,' created alarming scenes in this part of Jerusalem, and hundreds of police forces were searching for this individual, but it was later announced that a second terrorist apparently did not exist, although several suspicious Arabs were arrested. The day before, on Tuesday, October 21, a series of knife and gun attacks on passersby and bus passengers, occurring every few minutes, marked one of the hardest days in the last decade for residents of Jerusalem. In the events of Tuesday, one of the two Palestinian cousins who had planned a simultaneous dual attack, one of whom was arrested and the other killed, killed two bus passengers and injured eight others. On the same day, two Palestinian boys aged 13 and 16, each armed with a knife, injured a 13-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man, while simultaneously, an elderly Jewish woman and man were attacked by a knife-wielding man, resulting in the death of a 78-year-old man. On Tuesday, an Arab technician who had worked for years for an Israeli telephone company first ran over passengers and pedestrians in the 'Sarei Yisrael' neighborhood in West Jerusalem with the company's vehicle, and then, after exiting the vehicle, killed a 59-year-old man with a butcher's cleaver. This attacker was killed shortly after. Meanwhile, following the Israeli government's decision, security forces have been inspecting and questioning Arab vehicles and passengers by placing blocks on the roads leading to some Arab villages in East Jerusalem. The Israeli government's threats to demolish the homes of those responsible for attacks that result in death, or the decision to revoke the citizenship privileges of Arabs from East Jerusalem, have apparently had little effect in reducing the crisis. Israeli anti-terrorism experts have stated that since the second intifada subsided in 2005, the recent situation is the largest terrorist crisis that has engulfed the country. In the meantime, the Israeli government reacted strongly to the Wednesday night speech of the Palestinian Authority leader, accusing him of 'lying and inciting.' Mahmoud Abbas, in his speech, held up a photo of the 13-year-old from the attack on Tuesday, October 21, and said this 'hero' was 'executed' in public by Israeli soldiers. The Israeli Prime Minister's office responded by stating that multiple videos related to the knife attack by this teenager on passersby and severely injuring a 13-year-old Jewish boy had been released, and in addition, this injured Palestinian teenager was being treated in an Israeli hospital. At the same time, the Israeli government clashed with the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department. The American spokesperson stated on Wednesday that 'the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque changed, leading to a Palestinian reaction.' The State Department spokesperson later tweeted that they had not expressed themselves correctly and did not intend to say that the status of Al-Aqsa had changed. However, the Israeli government sharply criticized this American spokesperson, stating that the Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Israel had repeatedly said in recent weeks that the propaganda of some Palestinians claiming that Israel intends to take control of Al-Aqsa is 'lies and incitements' that have led to these killings. Observations from Radio Farda's correspondent in Israel indicate that the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians are heavily influenced by mutual fear, and while the streets of cities like Jerusalem have taken on an abnormal state, with many Jews only leaving their homes for essential tasks, many Palestinians are also refraining from going to work out of fear of being attacked. Eight Jews have been killed in the last 14 days, and Palestinians have also had at least 31 killed during this period. Thirteen of the killed Palestinians were residents of East Jerusalem and perpetrators of knife attacks against Jews; eleven Palestinians from Gaza had crossed the security barrier and entered Israeli territory. Meanwhile, the latest polls show that half of the Israeli population believes that the political solution of 'two states for two peoples' is no longer a 'dead' idea.