Security Forces Brace for Mounting Violence in Yehuda and Shomron

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – Israeli security forces are anticipating a further increase in violent clashes with Palestinians in Yehuda and Shomron, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Thursday evening.

A major factor in the changing conditions on the ground was said to be a weakening of the Palestinian Authority in areas officially within its control.

To shore up the PA, Israeli security officials are considering the possible release of security prisoners linked to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, according to the unsourced report.

Early on Thursday, two Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in Yehuda and Shomron, with one of them shot by Palestinian gunmen apparently after being misidentified following an Israeli security operation, local authorities said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it was aware of reports of two Palestinians killed during overnight operations in the region.

The statement said that in the town of al-Bireh near Ramallah, soldiers responded to disperse “violent riots,” in which rocks and Molotov cocktails were hurled at them, and in the Balata refugee camp in Shechem, Israeli forces responded to fire with fire.

On Thursday afternoon, Border Police arrested two members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group in the town of Al-Yamun near Jenin. The two suspects were named as Omar Jabari and his brother Ali Jabari.