ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES IN ALERTTask forces of Israeli soldiers were sent to the heavily Arab northern areas in order to avoid riots after
Thursday's incident in which a young Jewish man killed four Israeli-Arabs.
Tension is now high in and around the site of the attack, the town of Shafa Amr. As a result, the government decided to declare a state of alert, as there is fear of "a possible wave of Arab unrest", said al-Jazeera.
A shrine in Jerusalem is another hotspot for possible attacks since prayers for the next Friday were scheluded to take place there.
Hamas has threatened to avenge the death of the four Arabs in a statement, while security agencies have warned about the possibility of having young Jews murdering Arab citizens in an attempt to delay the pull-back from the occupied territories.
Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon has defined the tragic event has "a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist". His Palestinian counterpart, Mahmmoud Abbas, has instead blamed the Israeli authorities on the grounds that the settlers are free to own weapons, "because they are dangerous to the security and peace between the two people."
Another comment on the issue comes from a member of the Israeli Parliament, Muhammad Baraka:
"We are witnessing attempts by extreme right-wing people - terrorists - who want to set the region ablaze and feel they have freedom of action in light of the behavior of the security, political and judicial establishment," he told Israeli Radio.
The hardest challenge for the authorities is now trying to avoid clashes between Jewish and Arab civillians, as underlined by another member of the Arab Knesset, Ahmed Teibi, who said,
"This is the inevitable outcome of years of racist and fascist incitement against everything and anything Arab."
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Il Romanaccio at 1:11 PM
