Violent Clashes Erupt in Jerusalem as Palestinians Celebrate Hamas Terror Attack; Report: US Warns Israel Against Targeting Iranian Nuclear Facilities

Violent clashes erupted in eastern Jerusalem on Sunday night as hundreds of Palestinians marched in honor of a Hamas terrorist who carried out an attack in Jerusalem’s Old City earlier in the day.

Video clips on social media show dozens of rioters hurling rocks as police reportedly fired tear gas to disperse the crowds, while participants chanted, among other things, “The martyrs are going to Jerusalem in the millions.”

Two molotov cocktail attacks in the Jerusalem area were also reported by paramedics.

Fadi Abu Shkhaydam opened fire with a submachine gun near the Chain Gate, which leads to the Temple Mount, killing South African immigrant Eliyahu David Kay, 26, and seriously wounding another Israeli yeshiva student.

Three other Israelis were treated for minor injuries. 

Shkhaydam was shot dead by security forces.

Police conducted a raid at Shuafat refugee camp and reportedly arrested three of Abu Shkhaydam’s relatives.

The Shin Bet revealed on Monday it had uncovered a large Hamas terror network, which was planning a number of terror attacks, including suicide bombings, in Israel.

The sting operation, which was conducted by the internal security agency, the IDF and police, saw 50 cell members arrested, while weapons and explosives materials sufficient to build three or four suicide belts were also seized.

A 67-year-old man on Sunday was stabbed in a suspected terror attack on Bat Yam Street in Jaffa.

The suspect is an 18-year-old Palestinian resident of Jenin, who reportedly fled the scene and was found by police hiding in a nearby building.

The victim was taken by Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical services, to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.

It came just hours after a deadly terror attack in Jerusalem’s Old City, in which a gunman opened fire on passersby, killing one person and injuring four others.

Police arrested an 18-year-old Palestinian from Jenin, illegally residing in Israel, for stabbing a 67-year-old man in Jaffa, injuring him moderately. pic.twitter.com/8LhGNWIydw

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 21, 2021

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has since urged security forces to be on alert and to “prepare for possible new attacks.”

The United States has urged Israel against carrying out sabotage attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities on the grounds that such actions are “counterproductive” and actually encourage the Islamic Republic to speed up its uranium enrichment efforts, according to reports.

It is claimed the comments were made during private discussions between officials from both countries, but Jerusalem dismissed the warning and said there would not be a change of strategy.

Talks on reviving the moribund 2015 nuclear deal are set to resume at the end of this month in Vienna.

Tehran’s nuclear activities have now well exceeded the levels allowed under the agreement, with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency warning that Tehran has significantly ramped up its uranium enrichment program.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid reportedly pushed for an alternative solution to the nuclear accord in a meeting with US President Joe Biden’s security adviser in Washington last month, arguing that Iran is “becoming a nuclear threshold state.”

A recently discovered letter written by celebrated physicist Albert Einstein reveals his concerns about antisemitism in the United States after he fled Nazi Germany to escape such persecution.

The missive, which on Tuesday is due to be sold by Jerusalem-based Kedem Auction House, was addressed to Austrian-Jewish pianist Bruno Eisner, who had asked Einstein about what life was like in America.

“An enormous degree of antisemitism prevails here, especially in academia (but also in industry and banking),” Einstein responded, according to an English translation of the letter.

“Mind you, it never takes the form of brutal speeches or actions, but simmers all the more intensely beneath the surface,” he added. “It is, so to speak, an omnipresent enemy, impossible to see, and whose presence we only perceive.”

Einstein also explains that his Jewish assistant in the United States ended up moving to Russia because of the bigotry he faced.