 more than city of Khadira on Sunday and a stabbing attack in the southern city of Beershiiba last week. Now, the funerals for two of the five people killed in the terror attack in Benay Brak near Tel Aviv have been held a day after that shooting spree in the religious orthodox city. Ceremonies for 36-year-old Yakov Shalom and 29-year-old Avishai Yekheskel were held this morning. Two Ukrainian nationals were also killed, 38-year-old Viktor Sorokovt and 23-year-old Dmitry Mitrik. The funeral for 32-year-old police officer Amir Kuri is set to take place tomorrow. The Arab-Israeli Cup from the northern town of Nof HaKhalil was part of the Benay Brak police station's motorcyclist responders team. He was one of two officers who caught up with the gunman and killed him, ending the deadly shooting spree. However, Kuri was hit in the exchange and later passed away after being rushed to hospital. Security officials identifying the Palestinian terrorist as 26-year-old Diyah Hamar Shah from the town of Yabad near Jenin in the West Bank. He had previously been arrested in Israel for terror-linked offenses and was in the country illegally. The Israeli Prime Minister outlining the challenges now facing the country during what he calls a wave of terror. After a period of quiet, there is a violent eruption by those who want to destroy us, those who want to hurt us at any price, whose hatred of Jews of the state of Israel drives them crazy. They are prepared to die so that we will not live in peace. We are currently dealing with the new wave of terrorism. This is a great and complex challenge for the IDF, the ISA and the Israel police that requires the security establishment to be creative and for us to adapt ourselves to the new threat and read the tell-tale signs of lone individuals, sometimes without organizational affiliation and to be in control on the ground in order to thwart terrorism even before it happens. Now for the latest, we cross to our correspondent Pierre Klosschendler. He joins us from the city of Benet-Brak, so Pierre, less than 24 hours since his drive by shooting spree in the densely populated city of Benet-Brak. What more is known about this terrorist, a man arrested in the past with terror links? What can you tell us? Well, there was a hypothesis that this terrorist, D. R. Hamarche from Yabba, in the West Bank near Jenin, was only half a year in jail, but it actually appears that he was trying to buy a weapon in 2011 as he was a minor when he was 17-year-old. And at the time, the smuggler, the weapon smuggler, just stole his money and he never got this weapon. Today, NAMM 16, like the one he had yesterday, would cost something like almost $20,000, $15,000, I would say. At the time, the money was just spent for nothing, but he was arrested. He was left in jail for two and a half years. He had been in contact with Islamic Jihad, which shows that his affiliation, his political affiliation is very murky, because we're talking also about the fact that he was imprisoned in the Fatah branch of the jail for two and a half years. He had some sort of light sentence just due to the fact that he was a minor, because he was a minor, and because his family was quite normative in a sense. His father today even condemned what he did and expressed his bewilderment. Thank you so much. That is our correspondent, Pierre Closhengla, updating us from Benet Braque, more to come from Pierre in the coming hours. Thank you. Now, still with the story, a terrifying ordeal for residents of Benet Braque who heard the shots and the shouting last night. This mother from the city describes how she and her children responded. I was downstairs on the lawn with my two children. We went back home. They went to bed. I started hearing explosions. The house shook. I was sure these were firecrackers left over from forum celebrations, but it kept going. I came to the window and saw the terrorist right in front of the building with a big M16 rifle. In that second, I pulled my two children. The shooting didn't stop. The house was simply shaking. There were three different locations. You can hear it from all sides. The neighbors were yelling terror attack, terror attack. I went into the room and we took shelter. So what steps are Israeli security leaders set to take in the wake of the spate of terror attacks? Well, Defense Minister Benny Gantz has ordered 1000 Israeli Defense Force soldiers be assigned to help bolster police forces. The troops will be combat soldiers still in training. He says 12 battalions have been sent to the West Bank and another two to the Gaza border adding that security services will focus on locating potential attackers on social media, on foiling attempts of Palestinians to illegally enter Israel and on stopping weapons sales. So for more, we cross to our Middle East correspondent, Alec Pollard. He is at Israel's Defense Headquarters in Tel Aviv right now. So Alec, there are reports that these security steps announced by the Defense Minister Benny Gantz are raising some eyebrows, some seeing them as a short-term plan, putting on an Alastor class to tackle a major wound, so to speak. Tell us more. Well, isn't that the usual story for years of putting plasters on deep wounds that don't always have a cure? But certainly, if you're talking about what at least is being done now, as you mentioned, bringing in those reserve soldiers among others also to bolster the IDF presence in several areas and they're also talking about having more policemen and more border police inside major cities in order to get that quick response, which by the way did happen in all three of these attacks. The response was pretty swift, pretty quickly. There was someone on the scene, whether it was a civilian armed with a gun, whether it was a policeman, whether it was the border police, as was the case in each of the different cases. A pretty quick response helped to prevent a more serious incident or more casualties as many people feared could have happened if that response hadn't come. But indeed, one of the problems with these type of events is that it's not clear what the target is. Where is the nail to put the hammer down on? Because we had attackers coming from inside Israel, almost lone wolf, one may say, with their ISIS affiliation, at least not always part of a larger organization like Hamas or Palestinian Islamic jihad. Now we have this attack coming from the West Bank. There's the threat from Gaza. There's Jerusalem with the old city and the Temple Mount prayers are going to happen now during the month of Ramadan that we could see an escalation from that angle as well. So it's not easy to sort of pinpoint and take action here other than just to be on a very high readiness, which is what the extra troops are for and to make sure that policemen and border police who are in the Israeli cities when one of these attacks happens that they can react quickly in order to neutralize those attackers before they cause even more harm than they did as horrible as these attacks were in the last week. The assessment is that the response was quick and if it hadn't been, it would have been even worse. And Alex, we also know that another security assessment meeting is set to take place when the next hour or so are more stringent sets likely to come out of that as well. What are you hearing? Well, yes, all of the top security brass and political brass are many of them are also convening to discuss this. Certainly, this is at the point where this is also becoming extremely politicized. We're seeing the opposition members, whether it be Benjamin Netanyahu or all the way to the most radical of them, Ita Malbenville, who are putting the pressure on to deliver some type of very strong, massive action, right? On the other hand, inside the government, there are some forces or inside the coalition like the Islamic Ram Party, who may be calling for more calm. So there's a lot of different forces here at work from different directions, and they'll have to see what type of decision they can make under the political restraints, constraints that are in place right now. Middle East correspondent Alec Pollard live from Israel's defense headquarters in Taylor Bay. More to come from Alec in the coming hours. A quick break back in a bit. Stay tuned. We're on the inside of political and religious passions in Jerusalem, breaking down the financial trends shaping the global economy, giving you key contacts, not just headlines with the stories from Israel that touch the US, those across the region with impact far beyond its borders. Catch the rundown where the Middle East meets the world. The I-24 News team of talented correspondents are working hard for you. They're in the markets, on the streets, in the battlefields, getting the pulse of the story. We're going in for beyond the headlines to see how the top stories of the week are affecting real people. No commentary, no debate, just the best stories presented by our best germans. Imagine being able to see into the future. What innovations will change the world as we know it? Join us as we meet the people changing our planet and discover the inventions shaping tomorrow. Israel Business Beat, Sundays and Wednesdays, 9.30pm GMT. My 24 News Breaking News Edition, I'm Benita Levine, coming to you live from Taylor Bay. Thank you so much for staying with us. Let's take a look now at developments in Jerusalem. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, meeting with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schullenberg earlier on Wednesday in the capital, where the pair spoke out on the recent wave of terror attacks in Israel and the war in Ukraine. The Austrian Foreign Minister praising the historic Negev summit in recent days, in which four Arab foreign ministers joined Israel and the US at an unprecedented gathering in Israel. He called this a positive step towards promoting regional stability in the Middle East. He also reiterated that the security situation is deteriorating in Europe amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And he thanked Israel for taking in refugees from Ukraine and for trying to establish dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow. Let's take a listen to some of their comments. We are meeting in a difficult and painful day. Five people were murdered yesterday by a terrorist. The third such attack in a week. Our meeting today, like the Negev meeting, the Negev summit earlier this week, with the Secretary of State of the United States and the foreign ministers of Egypt, the UAE, Morocco and Bahrain, is the best response for terror. Peace and friendship are the alternative to violence and chaos. It's the shocking that terrorism is again showing its ugly face. And I want you and I want the people of Israel to know that Austria stands side by side with you. That Austria feels for the people here in Israel, for your fight. And yes, we are conducting this fight together. Israel's President Isaac Herzog has wrapped up his historic meeting in Jordan with King Abdullah and is back home. He is the third senior Israeli official to travel there to meet with the monarch this month in ongoing efforts to lower tensions ahead of Ramadan. The famous Minister Benny Gantz was in Amman earlier this week and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was there earlier this month. In recent days, the king visiting the West Bank to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Questions for Ramadan, Passover and Easter all happening in April. So for more insight, our diplomatic correspondent, Ellie Hachenberg, is here in studio. So, Ellie President Isaac Herzog, making this unprecedented meeting to go to Amman to meet with the king on the back of two other high-profile meetings. What kind of leverage does he have right now? What kind of message is he trying to send? You know what? I would dare to say, Benita, unlike your quote-unquote usual diplomatic encounters, here we're not really talking leverage, but rather a very much a joint opportunity for both leaders to try and restore calm. What we're saying on the ground is not in the benefit of either party involved and more so, Benita, Ramallah, is it an extremely problematic situation to an extent because on the one hand, Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian Authority is losing ground when we're talking influence on the Palestinian constituency. We're seeing that an indication for that, rather, is the violence on the ground. Let it be inflamed by Hamas and the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian cause, or what we're saying now, radical Islamic ideologies such as ISIS. On the one hand, Abbas cannot, you know, let go of the Palestinian cause in this respect, but he understands that he must condemn, as we've seen, harshly those events underground because the diplomatic community will simply not get it, and this takes me back to your question on the leverage, so to speak, Herzog has vis-a-vis King Abdullah. It's very much of a mutual interest for both Abdullah and Herzog to recruit the Palestinian Authority and Ramallah, not just on the security level. We know security coordination is ongoing all the time, but also on the diplomatic level. And I think that the condemnation we've seen on behalf of Abbas is a proof for that, and obviously, the pressure from the Americans did not hurt. Let's put it that way. And also, we know, of course, in the coming hours in Israel, a cabinet meeting will be taking place, and it will be interesting to see what kind of messaging comes out of that in the coming hours. Diplomatic correspondent Eli Hockenberg, thank you so much. Thank you. More to come from Eli in the coming broadcasts. Right now, for more insight, we welcome Professor Chuck Freulich, former Israeli Deputy National Security Advisor, and Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University, joining us from the city of Hoda-Sharon. Thank you so much for your time on this day. So Naftali Bennett is talking about this new wave of terror. 11 people dead in three terror attacks in the country in the space of a week. And now the security assessment happening soon. Talk us through your insights, the security strategy, and the major challenges facing Israel right now. Well, first of all, as we breathe, the people who are murdered. And as we sense the feeling of fury that I'm sure we all share, it's also important to recognize that we've been through this type of thing before. Fortunately, it's been a while since the Second Intifada. Unfortunately, it was even worse at the time. Those of us who experienced that, I think, still bear the trauma. And for those who did not experience it, it is a new trauma. But we have been through this, we've been through worse, and we will get through this as well. It's important to recognize that this is taking place on the background of a dramatically different Middle East from anything that we've experienced in the past. It was just mentioned in your introduction in your diplomatic correspondence words. There was a historic summit a week ago in Cairo, Prime Minister Bennett, President Sisi, and the de facto head of the UAE, NBZ. We almost forgot about that. Then there was another, even in some ways, even more historic summit for our foreign ministers together with the Israeli Foreign Minister, the American Foreign Minister, in Ceboquil, right near Ben-Gurion's grave. That's two days ago. We've almost forgotten that. So the ugly side of the Middle East raises its head again. But we now have much of the Arab world behind us denouncing what's happening. Mr. Abbas denouncing it. It's a different situation. Exactly what you are describing is part of the confusion for so many people right now. On the one hand, we heard just days ago messages of unity and peace, this new era of friendship at this historic negative summit, this landmark summit that many people never imagined seeing in their time, and then attacks like this. And you're just describing the fear that people have, the anger and the shock right now, three attacks in the space of a week. Is there likely a link? On the one hand, a growing warming of ties between Israel and Arab nations. And on the other hand, this uptick right now. Well, we've had these upticks in the past. I mean, this is a particularly bad one. Last May, the ground with Hamas wasn't a lot of fun either. There are forces in the Middle East who are still very much not reconciled to Israel's existence, who not only want to prevent the rapprochement with the Arab world, but are still committed to Israel's destruction. But it is, again, let me say it is a dramatically different Middle East. When we are busy in these very days when these horrors take place, we're building not just a network of diplomatic ties with Arab states, not just rapidly, and I would say dramatically expanding economic ties, but a new regional security architecture, where UAE, Bahrain, I would imagine quietly the Saudis, Egyptians, more quietly the Jordanians are all working with us to build this new security architecture, which includes the idea of a regional air defense, an anti-aircraft and anti-missile system. These are things that in Hebrew are known as Yamot Mashiach, the days of the Messiah. These are things that we could never dream of. So we have to put it in perspective and we have to do everything we can, of course, to prevent any more of this. It's already three attacks and 11 people murdered too many. We really have to take a variety of measures, but recognize that the overall picture is a dramatically improved one. Professor, I'd also like your perspective on who is behind these particular attacks. In this country, people are all too used to hearing Hamas claiming responsibility for attacks. We hear more and more about lone wolf attacks, but in recent days, we heard links to ISIS in Beishiba, as well as in Hadera. Talk to us about the impact here. What is going on? Break it down for us. Well, it seems exactly like you're saying that the two previous attacks were conducted by people who were radicalized by ISIS ideology. And the attack last night was by someone, just a Palestinian from the West Bank. I have yet to hear about links to any organization. The real problem for us is the blurring of the green line, which doesn't really exist anymore. In the past, we could fence off, wall off. We could try and create a separation between ourselves and the West Bank. It's getting harder and harder to do that in the short term now. And of course, to reach the kind of separation that might be necessary to reach a peace agreement down the line. And of course, if the two first attacks, they weren't conducted by Israeli Arabs, we can't fence ourselves off from the Arab population. They are part of Israel, part of the fabric of our society. So different measures are needed in the two cases. In both cases, there are counterterrorism measures, a variety of things that have to be done. They're different in the West Bank and in Israel proper, of course. There are things that we cannot do as a democratic society within Israel proper. And then if we're talking the Israeli Arab part of the picture, overall, again, the picture there is quite good. The number of Israeli Arabs involved in the bad things is really minimal. Most of the Arab population wants to be integrated into Israeli society. Is being integrated into Israeli society? We have an Arab party in the coalition for the first time. So what we have to do is a lot more of what this government and the previous government was doing is investing in the Arab sector, but also doing what the previous government did not do is trying to build greater identification with the state. In terms of terrorism from the West Bank, well, again, it's counterterrorism measures, but until we can separate, and that's not going to happen in the near future, if at all, there isn't a great deal we can do other than, yeah, there are various measures that will help a bit, but we can't stop it completely. And very briefly, Professor, we've been talking about the response here within the region, but talk to us about the United States. What role, if any, can it have right now in terms of quelling ties, in terms of tensions right now? The focus has been on Iran and the nuclear deal there, but what can it do in terms of the situation on the ground now, if anything? Very briefly, please. I don't think the U.S. has a role in the short term in playing counterterrorism here. Right. That's for the Shin Bet to take care of. That's not for the U.S. Well, we will be waiting to see exactly what the Shin Bet is going to do, and we do know a security assessment is going to be happening in the coming hours. We've been discussing that here, so we will be bringing updates as they happen. Professor Chuck Froyler, thank you so much, as always, for your time and your insights. And that's where we wrap up this breaking news edition, but our coverage continues, so do stay tuned. I'm Vanessa Levine in Tel Aviv. Thank you for watching.