Jerusalem attack: Palestinian teenager stabs two Israelis

Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian during clashes in east Jerusalem Thursday on their way to the home of a man accused of an earlier stabbing attack, medics said.

In Wednesday’s Old City attack not far from the mosque compound, police said that an 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed a 35-year-old Jewish man in the back and lightly wounded him.

The latest spike of violence between Israel’s army and settlers on the one hand, and Palestinians on the other, was provoked by a shooting ambush which killed an Israeli couple near the West Bank city of Nablus. According to police, he had opened fire at security forces at the Shuafat refugee camp.

The demonstrators came there to express their solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank, where attacks on Israelis have multiplied in recent days.

Scores of Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli troops and at least 10 Israelis have been wounded in nearly daily Palestinian stabbing attacks.

Palestinian protesters meanwhile clashed with Israeli forces in a number of locations in the West Bank.

“These actions are mostly not organized, but they are all the result of wild and untruthful incitement from Hamas, from the Palestinian Authority, from several neighboring counties and, no less, from the Islamic Movement in Israel”, he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner of the Israeli military said there were more than 1,000 men “attempting multiple times and at multiple locations to storm the border fence throughout the day”, hurling projectiles including a grenade.

Over the past week, four Israelis have been killed along with seven Palestinians, four of them after alleged attacks on Israelis.

The violence, including the first apparent revenge attack by an Israeli Friday and increasing protests by Israel’s own Arab minority, has raised fears of the unrest spiraling further out of control.

Gaza-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh applauded the stabbing attacks across Israel in a speech in Gaza, calling the surge in violence an intifada, or uprising. Netanyahu has told troops and police they can shoot Palestinian stone-throwers if they have reason to believe an Israeli life is threatened.

Thirteen Palestinians have been killed in violence in the past week, the Palestinian health ministry said.

In Jerusalem, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed on Neviim Street, a road that leads from Damascus Gate to Central Jerusalem.The suspect fled the scene immediately afterwards, but police caught the assailant.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the attacks a “terror wave”.

Security forces were on high alert in Jerusalem Saturday in preparation for two big events in the evening that are expected to draw thousands: a Euro2014 qualifying soccer match pitting Israel against Cyprus, and an open-air concert by reggae rapper Matisyahu.

Jews and non-Muslims can visit Al-Aqsa, but are not allowed to pray there.

Netanyahu ordered police to bar ministers and lawmakers from visiting the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem to avoid escalation, the Haaretz daily reported on Wednesday.

Last week, Palestinians shot two Israelis to death in front of their children in the West Bank.

– Border police officers shot and wounded an Israeli Arab woman after she tried to stab a soldier waiting for a bus in Afula in northern Israel.

Now Muslim leaders are insisting that the Temple Mount belongs to Muslims only and that Jews must not visit.