Israeli PM boosts security amid mounting criticism

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up the police presence in Jerusalem amid mounting public criticism of his handling of an ongoing wave of violence in both Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

After several Palestinian knife attacks over the past week, one of which killed two Israelis in Jerusalem, Netanyahu's office on Saturday announced the deployment of 13 additional units of the Israeli Border Police in Jerusalem and in other parts of Israel.

The last two weeks have seen mounting violence in both Israel and the West Bank, in which at least 23 Palestinians have been killed -- mostly as a result of Israeli security forces opening fire on Palestinian protesters, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, is facing mounting domestic criticism over the crisis, with three quarters of Israelis saying in a recent poll conducted by Israel's Channel 2 that they were dissatisfied with his response to the rising tide of violence. 

The survey also found that a full third of Israelis believed that more hard-right politicians, such as former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, should be made responsible for responding to the attacks. 

Palestinians, for their part, complain about the draconian measures being used by the Israeli authorities -- which they describe as “collective punishment” -- to contain the violence.

Jerusalem's Old City, which is considered vital to the Palestinian economy, was closed to Palestinians for two days last week, while bans on Palestinians entering East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque -- Islam's third holiest site -- have remained in place for almost one month. 

In a change to its usual rules of engagement, Israel’s security cabinet recently gave the green light to security personnel to use live ammunition against Palestinian stone throwers in a move that has drawn criticism from human rights groups.