Source: Wall Street JournalPublication date: Jun 09 2016Israel’s military on Thursday revoked 83,000 Palestinian permits to visit Israel and travel abroad during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the morning after two Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis in a rare shooting in Tel Aviv. The military also said it would deploy two additional battalions numbering hundreds of soldiers to the West Bank, cut Israeli work permits for 204 of the shooters’ relatives, and halted movement in and out of their West Bank village. Wednesday’s shooting presents the first serious test for newly appointed Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who agreed last week to allow free Palestinian movement between the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport so that Palestinians could visit relatives abroad during the holy month. A spokesman for Mr. Lieberman, whose predecessor was credited by the Israeli government with calming a nine-month wave of Palestinian violence against its citizens, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the shooting. An Israeli court on Thursday issued a gag order to the Israeli media that banned details of the investigation into the shooting. The men opened fire Wednesday night at a popular food market in central Tel Aviv, injuring five other people and sowing chaos as hundreds of people fled the scene. The attackers were cousins in their 20s from the Hebron region of the West Bank, police said. One was arrested and the other was rushed to the hospital after being shot and subdued by police. Closed-circuit television footage showed the assailants dressed in suits and ties as they shot patrons in one restaurant at point-blank range. One threw his gun at a victim as he fled. It wasn’t immediately clear if the two attackers had transported their guns into Israel from the West Bank. Israeli security officials have said that firearms are widely available in the West Bank. Israeli gun laws allow licensed owners to carry their weapons, although that sight is unusual in central Tel Aviv. Security at checkpoints into Israel has been lighter in the past two months as a wave of violence has subsided. Police identified the four dead Israelis as Ido Ben Arieh, 42, Ilana Nave, 39, Michal Fiegeh, 58, and Mila Mishev, 32. The West Bank arm of Islamist movement Hamas praised the attack, Palestinian media said, calling for further assaults during Ramadan, which began Monday. There was no immediate official response from the group’s leadership in Gaza. “We have no Iron Dome against terror attacks like these,” President Reuven Rivlin said in a statement Thursday, referring to Israel’s missile defense system that has effectively blunted the threat of rockets posed by Hamas. “There will be no resurgence of terror, and we will relentlessly pursue the perpetrators.” Some 30 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed in more than 300 Palestinian attacks since September, police say. Palestinian officials say more than 200 Palestinians—mostly alleged attackers—have been killed by Israeli security forces during the same period. Palestinians have carried out or attempted fewer than a dozen attacks since April. The attacks began in Jerusalem and the majority of the violence has centered on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Tel Aviv, the country’s commercial hub, has seen less violence. In March, a Palestinian killed an American tourist and wounded 10 other people in a stabbing spree along the Tel Aviv beach boardwalk. An Arab Israeli gunman opened fire on a busy bar in January on one of the city’s main thoroughfares, killing two people and wounding eight. The assailant later shot another victim as he fled the scene. Rory Jones Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-revokes-ramadan-permits-for-palestini...
