Counting casualties without context fuels cycle of violence

To Israelis, it feels like random terror. But to Palestinians, the killing of civilians in Jerusalem cannot be separated from the IDF killing Palestinians in a West Bank raid, writes BEN LYNFIELD.

As Israel grieves after the deadliest Palestinian terrorist attack in 15 years, civilians on both sides are caught in a maelstrom of blood, fear and dread that seems likely to get a lot worse.

“I didn’t let my daughter take the bus to school. An attack can happen in any place and downtown is very scary,” said Yael Ilan, a photographer who lives in West Jerusalem. “We’ve had one attack after another.”

On Friday night, a lone Palestinian gunman went on a killing spree after synagogue services in the Neve Yaakov neighbourhood in annexed East Jerusalem, leaving seven civilians, including 14-year-old Asher Natan Morali, dead and three others injured. In its initial response, the far-Right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed to intensifying settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

It seemed hard to understand how further encroaching on Palestinian land would make Israelis more secure or lower the flames that were initially stoked by Israel itself with a devastating military raid into the Jenin refugee camp that left 10 Palestinians dead.

Army officials first described it as an operation to arrest Islamic Jihad terrorists bent on carrying out an imminent attack, but no evidence of a ticking bomb was subsequently produced, raising doubts about whether launching the operation was justified. Be that as it may, 10 Palestinians - eight militants and two civilians - were killed in the deadliest single IDF West Bank operation in two decades, fuelling widespread anger and calls for revenge.

Many Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza viewed the Neve Yaakov attack as admirable revenge and celebrated the deaths of the Israeli civilians by handing out sweets and launching fireworks. The next day, as Israeli fears of copycat attacks mounted, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and wounded two Israelis in the Wadi Hilweh area in East Jerusalem, which is being taken over by settlers as part of an Israeli drive to transform Arab neighbourhoods into Jewish ones.