LATEST: 2nd Victim Dies From Car Attack on Train Passengers: Funeral Held for Attacker

Amid an escalation of violence in East Jerusalem sparked in part by the rehousing of Israeli Jews in Arab areas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to approve 2,000 new housing units in the West Bank.

Channel 2 News said the large-scale project will bolster settlement infrastructure while rebuilding the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the West Bank town of 50,000 Palestinians and several hundred Israelis.

Netanyahu’s decision followed a threat by the Ministers of the Jewish Home Party, including Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, to leave the Government if settlements were not approved. The departure, paired with an abstention in a no-confidence vote in the Knesset on Monday, could have triggered early elections.

The latest project will include the construction of 12 new roads, several parks, student villages, and a promenade in memory of three Israeli teenagers abducted and killed in June 2014 in the Gush Etzion settlement.

Widespread international condemnation of the decision is likely, but it is unclear if leftist and centrist opposition parties will oppose the move.

2nd Victim Dies From Car Attack on Train Passengers: Funeral Held for Attacker

One of the seven train passengers injured in last Wednesday’s hit-and-run car attack in Jerusalem has died.

The Ecuadorian convert to Judaism was pronounced dead at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital on Sunday nights. Hundreds of people, including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, attended her funeral this morning at the Mount of Olives.

A three-month-old infant died within hours of the attack on the passengers, disembarking from a train at the Ammunition Hill station.

In a short eulogy this moring, Barkat declared, “As mayor of Jerusalem, I say that the situation won’t continue. It’s unacceptable that those who live their whole lives for peace fall victim to those who glorify death.”

The attacker, Abdelrahman Shaludi, was buried on Sunday night. Israeli security forces, on high alert throughout East Jerusalem, limited the funeral to 20 mourners whose names had to be submitted in advance.

Protests and clashes continued on Sunday evening in East Jerusalem’s predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Silwan, Shuafat, Beit Hanina, and at-Tur.