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Israel boosts military deployment in West Bank following deadly Tel Aviv attack

Xinhua, June 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Israeli army said on Thursday it will increase its presence in the West Bank territories, one day after a shooting attack in Tel Aviv killed four Israelis.

"In accordance with situation assessments the Judea and Samaria (the biblical Jewish name for the West Bank) division will be reinforced by two additional battalions," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

Israel's security chiefs have held meetings since Wednesday night to discuss plans of action after the shooting by two Palestinian gunmen, cousins in their twenties from the southern West Bank village of Yatta, at a cafe in the popular Sarona restaurant in Tel Aviv, which is close to the Israeli military's headquarters.

Four Israelis were killed and five others wounded in the attack. The two attackers were apprehended, one was arrested and another was shot and seriously wounded, and is currently hospitalized.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened the security cabinet, a forum of 10 ministers, at noon on Thursday. The forum is expected to make decisions about Israel's upcoming moves.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he will not be satisfied with mere talks in response to the attack.

"I don't intend to elaborate on the steps which we will be taking and I definitely don't intend to make do with words only," Lieberman, a known hawk, told reporters in Tel Aviv.

On Thursday morning, Israeli authorities announced they had suspended measures meant to facilitate Palestinian during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement it had suspended permits for tens of thousands of Palestinians to travel from the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and enter Israel, in order to meet with family members and visit the al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem.

The easing of measures was announced last week ahead of the holy Muslim holiday, as had been done in recent years as well.

The work permits of 204 members of the attackers' family had been revoked as well.

The Israeli military also imposed a closure on the Palestinian village of Yatta in the southern West Bank overnight Wednesday. The two shooters were from Yatta.

More than 200 Palestinians and 32 Israelis have died in the latest surge of violence since October.

Israeli leaders accuse the Palestinian authority of inciting violence, but the Palestinians say the unrest was the result of the 49-year Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, where they wish to establish an independent state.

Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War, home to more than 5 million Palestinians. Endit