Palestinian car-ramming attack injures 2 Israeli police officers

Thousands of Palestinians are attending the funeral of a 19-year-old who killed two Israelis last week.

Mayor Nir Barkat told CNN Wednesday that misinformation was being used to imply that Israel was trying to change the status quo at the Temple Mount, which he said “is nothing to do with the truth”. Now Israel upholds a ban on non-Muslim prayer at the compound but Palestinians fear visits by Jewish groups, including ultranationalist lawmakers, are eroding their control of the al-Aqsa mosque located on the site.

The mayor recently openly carried his Glock pistol on a tour of Isawiya, a mainly Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem.

But on Tuesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged calm at a gathering of the Palestine Liberation Organization as his government sought to avoid further bloodshed. A statement from Netanyahu’s office Wednesday said the Israeli leader would not depart for the two-day visit so that he could “closely monitor the situation”.

Israel’s military had no immediate comment. Recent days have seen a string of attacks by young Palestinians with no known links to armed groups who have targeted Israeli soldiers and civilians at random, complicating Israeli efforts to contain the violence, which has been linked to tensions over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site. The stabbing victim “managed to shoot the woman terrorist, who has been evacuated to hospital in serious condition”, spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

In the central Israeli town of Petakh Tikvah a Palestinian from the West Bank stabbed and lightly wounded a man waiting at a bus stop. The suspect ran into a nearby building and was “neutralized”, Samri said.

But the attacks have spread beyond Jerusalem and the West Bank, the historical hot spots. Israeli media said security personnel called to her in Arabic and Hebrew multiple times to put the weapon down and that she had waved it while yelling, “Death to police”.

Rosenfeld said the suspect’s identity was not yet clear but that police were treating the incident as a terror attack.

On the other side, hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded in clashes, at least two fatally, after Israel’s security cabinet approved a crackdown on “inciters”, including the use of live ammunition at demonstrations if the lives of civilians are deemed to be at risk. “They had murder in their eyes”, said an Israeli radio host whose auto was attacked.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “strongly condemned the harming of innocent Arabs” and said whoever uses violence will be brought to justice.

“The police are going deeply into the Arab neighborhoods, which has not been done in the past”, Netanyahu said Monday.

“We are allowing our forces to take strong action against those who throw rocks and firebombs”.

Four Israelis have been killed in attacks over the past week.

A Palestinian stabbing attack had occurred in the same city a day before.

“I like throwing stones at the soldiers, like the other youngsters”, said Mustafa, 10. “The people are looking for how to earn a living, how to earn a living to feed their children”.

Palestinian assailants carried out a series of stabbings across Israel on Wednesday, jolting an anxious country unnerved by weeks of unrest as clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators raged across the West Bank. In turn, Israelis are on edge after deadly stone-throwing attacks by Palestinians and the killing of an Israeli couple in the West Bank 10 days ago. As well as tensions over al-Aqsa, Palestinian anger has mounted as Israeli forces have taken a tougher line against protesters who are violent. With the attacks spilling into the Israeli heartland, Netanyahu has warned rattled Israelis to be on guard.