Netanyahu tells police to bar ministers from Al-Aqsa compound

In the attack outside the mall, which occurred in the city of Petah Tikva, police said civilians apprehended the suspected Palestinian assailant after he stabbed and slightly wounded a man.

The suspect, who used a screwdriver, was shot dead by another soldier, said police, who identified him as Thaer Abu Ghazaleh, in his late teens.

Tensions between Israel and Palestinians have soared in the past couple of weeks, with the attacks on Israelis following clashes between troops and Palestinian youths at a flashpoint holy compound in East Jerusalem.

Authorities also reported a knife attack on a 25-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish student by a 19-year-old Palestinian at a train station near the main police headquarters in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Israeli soldiers walk through Jerusalem’s Old City after a Palestinian woman was seriously injured for allegedly stabbing a settler, October 7, 2015. In the Israeli city of Dimona, in the Negev desert, south of the West Bank, four people were injured with stab wounds Friday morning, a police spokeswoman said. He said Jewish parliamentarians “infiltrated and caused provocations, and because of them there is an escalation; not because of Arab parliamentarians and worshippers who are entering the Mosque of Al-Aqsa”.

A third happened in Jerusalem’s Old City, the second in the neighbourhood since Saturday, when two Israelis were killed by a Palestinian, helping set off an Israeli security crackdown.

Four new stabbings wounded Israelis Thursday, and one of the assailants was shot dead.

According to an Israeli official, Netanyahu ordered the ban on the holy site because he was concerned that any high-profile visits there could spark further violence.

Many Israeli cars were reported damaged in rock throwing incidents throughout the West Bank Thursday, but there were no injuries.

“The fact is that in this conflict, as in most, both sides are wrong”, the Christian group Foundation for Relief Reconciliation in the Middle East said recently of the growing violence.

The clashes erupted during the Jewish new year three weeks ago over tensions at the sacred hilltop compound in Jerusalem revered by Muslims as the spot where the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven and by Jews as the site of the two Jewish biblical temples.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu seemed to ease his rhetoric while at the same time visiting the site of a drive-by shooting in the West Bank in which a settler couple were murdered in front of their young children in their vehicle last week.

Netanyahu has said repeatedly he is committed to the status quo.

Jerusalem’s mayor has been photographed carrying an assault rifle during a visit to an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem.

Israel’s Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, who has come out in support of the right of Jews to pray in the compound, is among those to have visited the site.

Netanyahu postpones a visit to Germany and warns Israelis to be on maximum alert.

“The mayor encourages licensed gun owners to carry their weapons to increase security”, the statement read.

Barkat said: “One advantage that Israel has is that there are quite a few ex-members of military units with operational combat experience”.