Netanyahu vows stronger actions to defeat "wave of terror"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday that his government will take stronger actions to break what he called the current "wave of terror."

"I think we can break this wave of terror as we have broken previous waves," he said during a tour of the West Bank, visiting military positions and the site of last week's attack, in which Palestinian militants shot dead a Jewish settler couple, near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

Netanyahu instructed to install more security cameras along West Bank routes in an attempt to quash the rising surge of militant attacks, adding the plan to deploy both ground and air cameras at all West Bank junctions will enable Israeli soldiers to act quickly in order to thwart any attacks.

"This is an important aspect of restoring the security to the area and foiling terror attacks," Netanyahu said, according to a statement by his office.

There are already several dozens of cameras operating along West Bank roads, but Netanyahu intends to increase their amount.

He ordered similar measures to be taken on route 443, which connects central Israel to Jerusalem through West Bank territories, following attacks there in recent months.

Netanyahu on Tuesday also called upon public figures -- namely hardliners from his government as well as settler leaders -- to act responsibly and exercise restraint in order to lower the flames in the already hostile situation.

Thousands of right wing Israelis, among them ministers from Netanyahu's government, protested on Monday night outside the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, calling for a harsher response to a wave of militant attacks and the upsurge of violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Ministers told protesters that the government should build new settlements in response to the raising wave of terror.

The protest took place outside a security cabinet meeting, in which Israeli ministers decided to expedite the demolition of houses belonging to Palestinian militants, a controversial move which security forces in Israel decried as ineffective in the past. The directive was carried out on early Tuesday, with Israeli authorities demolishing homes of two Palestinian militants who carried out lethal attacks against Israelis in late 2014.

The Israeli English daily Haaretz reported Tuesday that senior Israel Defense Forces officers will meet with their counterparts from the Palestinian security apparatus in the West Bank on Tuesday evening in an attempt to jointly reduce tensions in the territories following the recent terror attacks.

Four Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces -- two of them were perpetrators of stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and were killed on the spot and the two others were killed in confrontations with Israeli security forces in the West Bank.

Palestinian medical services reported that nearly 700 Palestinians were injured in the past three days in clashes with Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers. Endit