BICOM

At a press conference last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged unity and called for calm. He said: “We have always known to unite in times of trial. We must put aside all of the little differences and unite around one major issue – defending Jerusalem, defending the security of Israel’s citizens. I think that this is what the citizens of Israel expect of us at this time – to stand together as one, unified and united.”

Netanyahu urged Israelis to follow the law and not to engage in vigilantism and reprisal attacks: “Citizens of Israel, I call on you to show maximum alert and to respect the law. As a state, we will settle accounts with all of the terrorists and those who dispatched them. We have already proven that we do this, but let nobody take the law into his hands, even if tempers flare and blood boils.”

Additionally, Netanyahu strongly criticised the Palestinian Authority and its leadership for encouraging an atmosphere of incitement and violence.

“Last week I travelled to Jordan and held a very important meeting in Amman with King Abdullah and US Secretary of State John Kerry. Together, we called to calm the situation and for the restoration of quiet. To my regret, the answer that we received from the Palestinian Authority was to declare a day of rage in Jerusalem. And today we all saw the result.”

Late last night Zidan Saif, a 30-year old policeman who was one of the first on the scene of yesterday’s synagogue attack, died of wounds sustained in fighting the terrorist incursion. Saif was a Druze from the town of Yanuh in the Galilee. He was the father of a four-month-old child. Zidan Saif is the second Druze to have been killed by terrorists in recent weeks; Jidan Assad was killed two weeks ago when a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in Jerusalem.

Members of Israel’s Druze minority serve in the IDF and police force. The death of Assad last week formed the backdrop to violent clashes between Druze and Muslim youth in the northern Israeli village of Abu Snin.