00:00 Well, for more on this story, I'm joined now from Jerusalem by our correspondent Iris Macler.
00:06 Iris, then, this attack yesterday, we have in the past sometimes seen lone wolf attacks
00:14 on Israelis, but this one has actually been more or less claimed by Hamas, who run the Gaza Strip,
00:21 of course, but this attack was in the West Bank. How would you describe their role these days in
00:28 the West Bank? I would say that there's a gap, a vacuum of power in the West Bank and that they
00:36 are trying to step into it and that this was a sign to the Palestinian public that they took
00:42 over Gaza in 2007 and they're poised to take over the West Bank. They're the natural party to do that
00:48 and you could see this was an attack coordinated within one day of an Israeli military raid in
00:56 Jenin. The two attackers were armed with Israeli weapons, M16s, Israeli military weapons,
01:02 and they are saying this is our calling card and they are saying that because there hasn't been
01:07 a presidential election in the Palestinian territories since 2005. The president, Mahmoud
01:14 Abbas, is an aging man. He doesn't have the same kind of power that he originally had. His security
01:22 forces don't operate in Nablus and Jenin and Hamas is saying we'll step into that role and they're
01:29 willing to even take the risk that Israel will act against them for doing that. They came out
01:34 into the open yesterday and spoke about their link to these two gunmen and they're saying that to the
01:40 public in the Palestinian territories. It's interesting. I've been seeing polls asking
01:46 Palestinians how are they worried about a third intifada, would they support it, those kind of
01:51 questions and the answer that got the largest, 80% of people said we want presidential elections and
01:58 we want the president to go. So a very unpopular aging president, a vacuum of power and the
02:06 militants step right in. And amid all of this, what sort of pressures is Israeli Prime Minister
02:14 Benjamin Netanyahu under as this spiral of violence seems to escalate? Yes, he is under
02:22 pressure. I saw a headline this morning in an Israeli newspaper saying that Benjamin Netanyahu
02:27 was caught between the right-wing settlers and other right-wingers within his own government,
02:33 this right-wing, very hard-right coalition that he leads, and Israel's defence forces,
02:39 the military, which isn't so keen on a very broad military action in the northern West Bank starting
02:46 now. That's what the religious parties are calling for. Let's not forget, most of this violence has
02:53 been in the occupied West Bank, that's where they live. And so they are putting enormous pressure
02:59 on the Prime Minister. The military, on the other hand, is saying we're not sure what you hope to
03:06 achieve. We're not sure that this is the right time and that it won't actually escalate things.
03:11 So the military is not there 100%, even though there is a plan apparently on the chief of staff's
03:19 desk. There is, I would say, a third factor. There's also American pressure right now. America's
03:23 trying to negotiate some kind of deal with Iran. It doesn't want an explosion here. And I think
03:29 there are three factors that Benjamin Netanyahu has to take into account. And it's not easy for
03:36 him. None of them will answer this problem in actual fact. All right, well, we'll leave it
03:41 there. Thanks very much. Iris Mackler there speaking to us from Jerusalem.
