Israel PM: Palestinian attackers’ homes to be destroyed

JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday threatened to settle accounts with Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis, according to an official statement.

According to Netanyahu’s office, the prime minister held a security assessment today, in which he ordered the demolition of the Palestinian attackers’ homes within 48 hours.

“The principle that guides us is that whoever harms us or tries to harm us, his blood is in his hand,” he said.

Netanyahu also vowed to regulate thousands of Jewish settlers’ houses in the West Bank in retaliation for recent attacks.

On Thursday, two Israelis were killed and two others wounded in a drive-by shooting near the West Bank city of Ramallah in what seemed to be retaliation for the killing of the three Palestinians.

The Israeli military announced Ramallah a closed military area, preventing anyone from entering or leaving the city.

Tension has been running high in the occupied territories since U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel late last year.

Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping East Jerusalem -- now occupied by Israel -- might eventually serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state.