A nighttime stroll past midnight in Jerusalem's Old City these days makes anyone suspicious. There is not a soul in the holy city. Rats take advantage of the vacuum to rummage through garbage cans. Dozens of cameras monitor every corner and, as you approach the Jewish quarter in the dark, alarms go off. The cops are at war and very nervous. Four or five in each control. First they point, then they shine their flashlights, then they ask. An Arab citizen in this situation runs more risks than a foreigner, who is also suspicious because there are no tourists now. Interrogation is not forgiven.
During the day, there are people on the street but the same tension, and more so after the attack that yesterday cost the lives of three people and injured six in Jerusalem. At the same point, where the Muslim and Jewish quarters are, a boy no older than 15 is facing the wall, his hands on the millenary stones and his legs spread. Search and interrogation surrounded by police. The boy is so scared that when he is told to leave it takes almost a minute to understand that he can leave.
There are 358,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, including the two terrorists who yesterday morning got out of a car and started shooting people at a bus stop in Jerusalem, close to the central station of trains Two women aged 24 and 60 and a man aged 73 died. The man was a former judge of the rabbinical 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 had spent ten years in prison on suspicion of terrorism. He was released from prison in 2020 and it is no coincidence that Ben-Gvir – who along with two other ultra-right ministers of Otzma Yehudit (Poder) had opposed the ceasefire with Hamas – also highlighted that one of the terrorists had been 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 teenagers with no 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 yard of her home in Nabi Salih (West Bank). His case went around the world and generated waves of solidarity. He served eight months in prison. On November 6, Tamimi, who is now 22 years old, was arrested again on charges of "inciting terrorism" on Instagram.
Thirty more Palestinian prisoners were released yesterday in exchange for a dozen Israeli hostages - two also of Russian nationality. Seven days of truce were observed, which have already led to the release of more than a hundred hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas still holds about 135 abductees.
Yesterday's attack in Jerusalem took place shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a new extension of the truce in Gaza, at 7:00 a.m., the time when the fighting had resumed. Yesterday, seven days of the ceasefire were reached.
Last night the situation was identical to the night before. Negotiations for an extension of the truce continued with the mediation of Qatar. During the day, a member of the leadership of Hamas, Muhammad Nazzal, told Al-Jazeera that the organization is ready to continue to extend the truce with the same format and to negotiate the release of "another type of prisoners" , with reference to the soldiers and men they hold captive. Nazzal claimed that they also have three corpses of dead hostages, he said, due to Israeli shelling and insisted on the idea of a "permanent ceasefire".
For his part, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, yesterday made his fourth visit to the region since the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, and met with Netanyahu and the president Palestinian, 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 be maintained"; the diplomat asked Netanyahu for "safe" areas for civilians in the south of the strip. Abbas conveyed to Blinken "the urgent need to establish a total ceasefire". And Netanyahu insisted that the truce is temporary and that the war will resume until Hamas is brought to an end.
