Palestinian shot dead after attack on Israelis

Netanyahu’s move to ban lawmakers from the holy site put him at odds with the Jewish hard-liners in his governing coalition.

The Latin-rite Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem has called on Palestinians and Israelis to return to the negotiating table amid escalating violence in the region along ethnic and religious grounds, and fears of a new uprising or intifada.

The attacks were initially confined to east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.

An unnamed 19-year-old youth was killed east of Khan Yunis, in Gaza’s south. 21 Palestinians were also wounded in the firing by Israeli forces. However Israeli officials have downplayed that possibility, saying this is the kind of violent spike Israel has faced periodically in recent decades. “It is a day that will represent the start of a new intifada in all of the land of Palestine”, Haniyeh told followers after Friday prayers.

“We give our souls and blood for Jerusalem, Jerusalem and al-Aqsa is part of the religion”.

The stabbing is the fourth of its kind in the capital since October first and has resulted in heightened police security throughout flashpoint Arab neighborhoods and the Old City. The guard opened fire and injured the Palestinian before she could hurt anybody, police said.

The police said that the victim of Thursday’s attack was a 25-year-old Jewish man who was in a serious condition after being stabbed in the neck near one of Jerusalem’s main thoroughfares.

In Jerusalem, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a 14-year-old Israeli with a vegetable peeler Friday before being arrested.

Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated following the confrontations, which are the latest in a long line of clashes between the two sides over the contentious Gaza Strip. Over the next five years, this pattern persisted - administration officials largely absolved the Palestinians of responsibility for incitement and terror while threatening to reassess relations with Israel and calling the leader of a close ally a “chicken -“.

The chances of talks resuming before U.S. President Barack Obama’s term ends appear slim.

Two Israelis were assaulted within about an hour of each other Thursday, authorities said.

“It’s us the terrorists track down first”, said one soldier, nervously keeping an eye on his surroundings while smoking a cigarette in front of the station.

Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) exhorted social media giants including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to ban postings “celebrating and encouraging the continuing wave of stabbings by Palestinians across Israel”. In recent weeks, clashes have erupted at the holy site between Palestinian rock-throwers and Israeli police. Israeli mayors have encouraged residents with gun licences to carry their weapons.

In Jerusalem, Rosenfeld said police forces in an Arab east Jerusalem neighborhood came under attack and responded with gunfire, hitting a 25-year-old attacker.

For Netanyahu, who has made fighting terrorism the centerpiece of his political life and is still reeling from his failure to stop the Iran nuclear deal, the crisis has exacerbated tensions in his narrow, conservative coalition and left many Israelis asking why he can not keep their streets safe. They either fight for their freedom or they will be relegated as Israel’s cheap labor and third-class inhabitants, not citizens, of an expanded Israel.