 |
Israeli Security Forces on High Alert in Jerusalem, Northern Areas
Israeli security forces were on high alert Monday in northern areas and Jerusalem after troop pullout from the Palestinian town of Qalqilya early Monday morning and a shooting attack in Jerusalem Sunday.
Israeli police have reinstated a high alert status in the Sharon area along the Mediterranean coast and deployed forces throughout Jerusalem in response to the Sunday shooting attack killing two Israeli teenagers and wounding more than 40 people.
But senior police officials said that they were unable to "hermetically" seal the "seam line," Israel's pre-1967 Mideast War border with the West Bank.
"We must reduce (the risk) and we are doing everything we can to block (infiltration of militants), but as far as full security is concerned, people even succeeded in getting past the Berlin Wall," border police commander of the Sharon region Avraham Itach told Army Radio.
Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said on Monday that the police have received warnings of possible attacks in the city.
"We are very widely deployed with forces throughout the city and the seam line, and I very much hope that we will supply the answer (to the threat)," Levy said.
Both the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) have claimed responsibility for the Sunday attack.
Israeli troops withdrew from Qalqilya in northern West Bank despite the Sunday shooting attack. Israeli authorities said that they would carry out a phased pullout from the other four Palestinian cities, namely Jenin, Tulkarm, Ramallah and Nablus.
In This Section
|