By NNN-KUNA,
Gaza : Israel has implied that it will take more strict measures with the Palestinians as punishment after Wednesday’s attack in Jerusalem.
The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said Thursday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held, Wednesday evening, a series of meetings with government officials to discuss the situation of Jerusalem’s Arab residents.
It said the Israeli government thinks the Arab residents use their residency rights to move freely into central Israel to carry out terrorist attacks.
It quoted Olmert as saying that deterrence must be achieved and that “if we have to do it by demolishing homes, then so it shall be.”
“There is no way to fence-off the Arabs of east Jerusalem and every home of a potential terrorist,” he added.
After Wednesday’s bulldozer attack, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak demanded an immediate response, ordering demolition of the home of the attack’s executer, Husam Duwykat, who was shot dead soon after he used a bulldozer to hit a bus and vehicles with Israeli passengers.
Barak also called for limiting the Palestinians’ freedom of movement in Israel.
According to Israeli media, Duwykat’s father was arrested after the attack.
An unknown group called “Ahrar Al-Jaleel”, which was established in 2002, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group’s first martyr was Mahmoud Al-Khateeb who was killed in April 2004, Palestinian media reported Thursday.
However, the group announced earlier that its first militant operation was the kidnapping and killing of an Israeli soldier. The Israeli intelligence found the body of the soldier near Al-Nisera city a week after he went missing.
The shooting attack against a Jewish religious school in West Jerusalem which killed eight Israelis and injured 10 others on March 6 was the group’s most widely reported attack.