A night walk past midnight through the Old City of Jerusalem turns anyone into a suspect these days. There is not a soul in the holy city. Rats take advantage of the vacuum to rummage freely in the garbage cans. Dozens of cameras monitor every corner and, as one approaches the Jewish quarter in the dark, alarms go off. The police are at war and very nervous. Four or five at each control. First they point, then they shine their flashlights and then they ask. An Arab citizen in that situation runs more risks than a foreigner, who is also suspicious because there are no tourists now. They don’t forgive anyone the interrogation.
During the day, there are people on the streets, but the same tension, and even more so after the attack that this Thursday cost the lives of three people and injured six in Jerusalem. At the same point where the Muslim and Jewish neighborhoods meet, a boy no older than 15 is facing the wall, with his hands on the ancient stones and his legs spread. Search and interrogation surrounded by police. The boy is so scared that when they tell him to leave, it takes him almost a minute to understand that he can leave.
There are 358,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, including the two terrorists who got out of a car this Thursday morning and began shooting at people at a bus stop in Jerusalem, near the central train station. Two women, ages 24 and 60, and a 73-year-old man died. The man was a former judge of the rabbinic court, a religious court that is part of the Israeli judicial system.
The two attackers, two brothers aged 38 and 30, also died. The Minister of Security, the extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, was quick to say that both were members of Hamas. Hours later, the al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack and justified it as a response “to the crimes of the occupiers who kill children and women in Gaza.”
One of the attackers spent ten years in prison for being suspected of terrorism. He was released from prison in 2020 and it is no coincidence that Ben-Gvir – who along with the other two far-right ministers of Otsmá Yehudit (Jewish Power) opposed the ceasefire with Hamas – also highlighted that one of the terrorists was in prison . The ceasefire agreement includes the exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank, although all those released are women and adolescents without blood crimes and with very minor causes.
One of the prisoners released on Wednesday is the young activist against the Israeli occupation Ahed Tamimi, who in 2017, at the age of 16, was imprisoned after slapping a soldier stationed in the courtyard of her house in Nabi Salih (West Bank). Her case went around the world and generated waves of solidarity. She served eight months in prison. On November 6, Tamimi, now 22 years old, was arrested again on charges of “inciting terrorism” on Instagram.
Another 30 Palestinian prisoners were released this Thursday in exchange for eight Israeli hostages – two also with Russian nationality. Seven days of truce were completed, which has already led to the release of more than a hundred hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas still holds around 135 kidnapped people.
This Thursday’s attack in Jerusalem occurred shortly after Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu announced a new extension of the truce in Gaza and at the limit of seven in the morning, the time when the fighting had resumed. This Thursday marked the end of seven days of ceasefire.
This Thursday night the situation was identical to the previous night. Negotiations for an extension of the truce continued with the mediation of Qatar. During the day, a member of the Hamas leadership, Mohammad Nazzal, told Al Jazeera that the organization is willing to continue expanding the truce with the same format and to negotiate the release of “other types of prisoners,” referring to soldiers. and men they hold captive. Nazzal stated that they also have three bodies of hostages who died, according to him, due to Israeli bombings and insisted on the idea of ??a “permanent ceasefire.”
For his part, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his fourth visit to the region this Thursday since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 and met with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. There were no changes to the script. Blinken said that Israel has the right to defend itself, but that the truce “is producing results” and “we hope it can continue”; The diplomat asked Netanyahu for “safe” areas for civilians in the south of the strip. Abas conveyed to Blinken “the urgent need to establish a complete ceasefire.” And Netanyahu insisted that the truce is temporary and that the war will resume until Hamas is finished.
