As grieving Israeli households sat shiva on Sunday for seven civilians killed over the weekend in East Jerusalem, the household of their Palestinian killer felt a unique emotion.
Satisfaction.
“He’s a legend and hero,” mentioned the killer’s father, Moussa al-Qam, 48, whose personal father was stabbed to demise in 1998, in what Israeli officers later acknowledged as an act of Jewish terrorism. His son, Khairy, 21, who was named for his grandfather, was killed after waging Friday’s assault exterior a synagogue.
“I raised him nicely,” Mr. al-Qam mentioned.
Each Mr. al-Qam’s remark and his household historical past highlighted why the present second in Israel and the occupied territories feels so hopeless and dangerous, after a spasm of violence that has left seven Israelis and at the very least 14 Palestinians lifeless since Thursday.
Some Palestinians like Mr. al-Qam specific little empathy for Israeli civilians and reside in an atmosphere the place Palestinian assaults on Israeli civilians are celebrated and their perpetrators lionized — elevating the probability of additional assaults within the coming days.
Such need for revenge, coupled with the objectives of extremist Israeli ministers in Israel’s new authorities, has fanned questions on whether or not the area is on the cusp of one other escalation involving both a violent grass-roots rebellion within the occupied West Financial institution, one other devastating battle within the Gaza Strip, or each.
The Palestinian Authority, the semiautonomous physique that administers components of the West Financial institution, scaled again its coordination with Israeli army officers final week, weakening one of many means by which violent surges have been curbed previously.
The character of Israel’s response may assist resolve whether or not the present surge ebbs or escalates, as may the messages introduced by the American secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, who is about to go to Jerusalem and the West Financial institution on Monday and Tuesday.
However a Palestinian urge for food for a renewed wave of violence could in the end be the decisive consider the place the present second goes. And in interviews on Sunday with Palestinians throughout the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem and Gaza, there was widespread anger about their remedy, significantly after the deadliest 12 months for West Financial institution Palestinians in additional than a decade and a half.
In Jerusalem, the households of the seven Israelis killed on Friday grieved in cramped, spartan properties, welcoming a gentle circulation of mourners. Some expressed bewilderment at how their kin had ended up victims to this cycle of violence. Others voiced anger.
However to Palestinians, such assaults don’t occur in a vacuum: They’re fueled by Israeli remedy of Palestinians, together with the Israeli occupation of the West Financial institution and the creation of a two-tier authorized system that distinguishes between Israelis and Palestinians within the territory; the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza; and particular person acts of violence just like the killing of Mr. al-Qam’s father.
“When Palestinians are being killed day by day, they see any assault that kills Israelis as one thing that redeems their dignity,” mentioned Majd Dandis, 31, a neighbor and pal of the al-Qam household.
“Naturally, folks had been completely happy,” Mr. Dandis mentioned of Khairy al-Qam’s assault exterior the synagogue. “All of Palestinian society was completely happy, not simply this neighborhood.”
Video posted on-line on Friday confirmed Palestinians in components of the West Financial institution and Gaza cheering the information of the assault, distributing sweets in celebration and setting off fireworks.
However Palestinian society isn’t monolithic, simply as Israel’s nationwide safety minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who as soon as displayed in his dwelling a portrait of an Israeli mass killer, doesn’t mirror the breadth of Israeli opinion.
Amongst Palestinians, there’s additionally empathy for Israeli civilians, in addition to a broader, pragmatic consciousness of the toll that an insurgency may unleash not solely on Israelis however on Palestinians themselves.
Already, the households of the Palestinian attackers, amongst them the al-Qams, have been compelled from their properties forward of the buildings’ demolition, a typical Israeli observe that critics name collective punishment. Dozens of their kin and neighbors have additionally been arrested and interrogated.
The society-wide price would even be excessive. The second Palestinian intifada, or rebellion, of the 2000s left about 1,000 Israelis lifeless, largely in terrorist assaults, however roughly 3 times that variety of Palestinians died within the Israeli response.
Within the al-Qams’ East Jerusalem neighborhood, which was captured by Israel in 1967 from Jordan and which many of the world nonetheless considers occupied, the worry of an Israeli crackdown tempered a few of the residents’ pleasure.
Whereas a number of of Mr. al-Qam’s neighbors agreed that his son was a hero, in addition they tried to forestall journalists from speaking to the daddy to forestall him from saying something which may carry additional issues to the neighborhood.
A mile away, the household of one other Palestinian assailant — a 13-year-old who shot and wounded two Israelis on Saturday morning — displayed the same ambivalence.
They expressed pleasure within the actions of their 13-year-old relative, who was shot, wounded and arrested after the assault close to a Jewish space in East Jerusalem, and indifference to the fates of the wounded Israelis. However they mentioned they feared the results the assault would carry on the boy’s household. Already, his mother and father and two older brothers have been interrogated by the Israeli police and their home sealed for demolition.
“After all we’re happy with what he did,” mentioned Khalil Abbasi, 31, the boy’s uncle. “However on the similar time, we’re upset, as a result of his household didn’t deserve this.”
The kin mentioned that they’d by no means heard the boy specific a need to assault Israelis and that he might need gotten the thought from social media. A 13-year-old classmate of the boy’s who was spending the afternoon with the household mentioned he and different younger associates had tried to dissuade him.
“We mentioned, ‘You don’t have to do it; it should carry destruction on your loved ones,’” the classmate mentioned. “However he went forward and did it.”
In pockets of the West Financial institution and Gaza, some expressed related wariness. In Balata, a stronghold for armed Palestinian teams within the northern West Financial institution, one member of an armed faction mentioned there was little urge for food for a widespread rebellion.
“Everyone seems to be drained,” mentioned Abu Zoofe, 37, a member of the Balata Brigade, a small armed group. “Nobody needs for there to be one other intifada,” he mentioned in a telephone interview.
In Gaza, some residents mentioned they weren’t prepared for Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the strip, to fireplace rockets into Israeli airspace as a result of it might nearly definitely provoke one other barrage of Israeli airstrikes that will devastate the enclave, lower than two years after the final main air conflict.
Gazans “are not looking for an escalation as a result of the 2021 conflict destroyed their psychological well being and homes,” mentioned Ahmed Esleem, 19, an undergraduate enterprise pupil. “There will likely be so many individuals dying,” he mentioned.
The Hamas management warned on Saturday of “an unprecedented escalation,” however it stopped in need of saying it might lead that escalation and has not claimed accountability for the latest assaults in Israel.
Amongst some Palestinians, there’s a sense that they’ve little to lose from an insurgency as a result of the scenario is already so fraught.
In Jerusalem neighborhoods like Silwan, the place the 13-year-old gunman grew up, many Palestinian residents are below fixed risk of eviction or dwelling demolition. About 200 properties are weak due to court docket instances by Israeli settler teams in search of to cement Israeli management over town, in line with Peace Now, an anti-occupation advocacy group. The group estimates {that a} additional 20,000 Palestinian properties face demolition as a result of their homeowners constructed them with out getting planning permission.
A examine by the United Nations workplace for humanitarian affairs described such permission as “nearly not possible” for Palestinians to acquire, partly as a result of town authorities have put aside little land in Palestinian areas for residential growth whereas facilitating large-scale Israeli settlement building.
Just a few yards from the house of the 13-year-old arrested within the Saturday assault stand the ruins of one other constructing. It was as soon as the house of his aunt. The authorities destroyed it a number of years in the past as a result of it lacked a allow, the household mentioned.
The al-Qam household dwelling few miles away is prone to be one of many subsequent to go. On Sunday, it was sealed shut by Israeli safety officers, forcing Mr. al-Qam to sleep with kin, and it’s anticipated to be demolished within the coming weeks.
Mr. al-Qam maintained it was a value price paying.
“Even when I’ve to sleep exterior, I don’t care,” he mentioned. “So long as my son fulfilled his responsibility, I don’t care.”
Hiba Yazbek and Raja Abdulrahim contributed reporting.
