Israeli PM Netanyahu vows response to violence in Jerusalem

(Vatican Radio) Israel's prime minister on Tuesday said he would take a series of “aggressive steps" to halt a wave of violence in Israeli cities after two attacks in Jerusalem left three Israelis dead. Three Palestinians, including two attackers, were also killed.

In a speech at the Knesset, Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Israel would settle its account with murderers and those who want to kill, and anyone who helps them. Not only won’t they have any rights, but we will extract the full price from them.” He continued, “Today we will decide on a series of additional aggressive steps in our war against terrorists and inciters. We will use, and not hesitate to use, all means at our disposal to restore calm.”

Netanyahu left a meeting of top security officials to deliver the speech, and quickly returned. The deliberations continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning when Netanyahu's office announced that several new measures were approved.

The attacks in Jerusalem, including a deadly shooting and knifing spree on a bus and a violent hacking attack caught on video, escalated the month long unrest and raised the pressure on Netanyahu to take action. The government has been unable to stop the violence, carried out mostly by young Palestinians unaffiliated with known militant groups and apparently acting on their own.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he was working on calming violence between Palestinians and Israelis, and will travel to the region soon to try to move the situation “away from this precipice.”

Kerry said the United States' goal for the region, the two-state solution “could conceivably be stolen from everybody” if violence in the region were to spiral out of control.

The violence erupted last month over the Jewish New Year, fuelled by rumours that Israel was plotting to take over Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site. While Israel says the rumours are unfounded, clashes have quickly spread across Israel and into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.