'Our enemies haven't learned: Terrorism will not defeat us'.
On the same day that Palestinians carried out four terrorist attacks against Israelis, leaving a teenage boy in critical condition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the Knesset's winter session Monday with a fiery speech against ongoing incitement to violence.3 killed, over 20 injured as terror attacks rock Jerusalem, Ra’anana
"A hundred years of terrorism, a hundred years in which they have tried to destroy the institution of Zionism, and yet our enemies haven't learned: Terrorism will not defeat us, in fact just the opposite," Netanyahu said.
"'The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew,'" he said, quoting Exodus 1:12.
"We will also overcome the current wave of terrorism. We will punish every attacker, Jew and Arab alike, to the fullest extent of the law."
Netanyahu also addressed the tensions on the Temple Mount.
"They spread propaganda filled with lies about the Temple Mount to spark riots," he said. "We are committed to maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount and we rigorously safeguard the holy sites of all religions."
All the Knesset members belonging to the Joint Arab List left the room at the beginning of the prime minister's speech. Netanyahu criticized members of the party for encouraging the violence and undermining the state, singling out MKs Basel Ghattas and Hanin Zoabi.
Two separate attacks hit Jerusalem in a matter of minutes Tuesday morning, when two Arab men attempted to stab passengers on a bus before being shot and a car rammed into a group of people in the center of the capital.Cleric Tells Palestinians to Stab Jews: ‘Cut Them into Body Parts’
One person was killed and another wounded as a driver rammed into a crowd on Malchei Israel Street in the Makor Baruch neighborhood in the center of the city. The attacker reportedly stepped out of the crashed vehicle and attempted to stab the wounded. He was subdued by police, but was not killed.
In a separate incident minutes earlier, two male passengers were killed — a 60-year-old who died at the scene, and a 45-year-old who died in the hospital — and three others suffered gunshot wounds in a combined shooting and stabbing attack on Egged bus 78 in the neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv in southern Jerusalem.
Two assailants were involved in the Armon Hanatziv attack, and were shot and subdued by police. One terrorist was said to have been killed, and the other was caught by police.
Some 15 people were said to have been injured in the attack.
A cleric directed Palestinians to stab Jewish Israelis during a sermon last week at a mosque in Rafah, a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip.
Sheikh Muhammad Salah “Abu Rajab” during a sermon at Al-Abrar Mosque on Friday directed listeners to attack Jewish Israelis in groups and “cut them into body parts,” according to video obtained by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Days after the sermon, Israeli authorities said that a young Palestinian man waged a knife attack on a border officer in Jerusalem. Police shot and killed the individual near Jerusalem’s Old City. The incident followed days of deadly confrontations in the city.
“Brothers, we must constantly remind the world and everyone who has forgotten … This is Gaza! This is the place of trenches and guns! This is the West Bank! This is the place of bombs and daggers!” Salah told his audience.
“Today, we realize why the [Jews] build walls. They do not do this to stop missiles, but to prevent the slitting of their throats.”
A few minutes into the sermon, he began wielding a knife.