Israeli government to revoke rights of 'families of terrorists'
JERUSALEM — The Israeli security cabinet announced measures to revoke certain rights of "terrorist families" after two attacks in east Jerusalem, one of which killed seven people near a synagogue.
Meeting late Saturday, the security cabinet "decided on a series of steps to ... exact a price from terrorists and those who support them," according to a statement.
It announced the revocation of the rights to social security of "the families of terrorists that support terrorism" and a discussion on Sunday by the council of ministers of a bill to revoke their Israeli identity cards.
At the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a "strong" and "swift" response to the Palestinian attacks over the past two days.
The measures announced are in line with proposals from his far-right political partners which enabled him to return to power at the end of December, following elections the previous month.
They are likely to apply to Palestinians with Israeli nationality (Israeli Arabs) and Palestinians with resident status in annexed east Jerusalem.
Friday's synagogue attack, one of the deadliest in Jerusalem in years, was carried out by a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem.
Hours later, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and wounded a father and son in east Jerusalem on Saturday.
Deploring scenes of people in several Palestinian cities celebrating the killings near a synagogue in a Jewish settlement neighborhood in east Jerusalem, the security cabinet also agreed "on steps to strengthen settlements that will be submitted this week", without giving further details.
Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are considered illegal by the United Nations, which continues to call for their end.
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