Palestinian attackers shot dead in latest violence

Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank set fire to a Jewish shrine near Nablus and stabbed an Israeli soldier near Hebron on Friday as tensions ran high after more than two weeks of violence.

Jerusalem police spokeswoman Luba Samri described one incident to the press, saying that a 16-year-old Palestinian had drawn a knife on officers early Saturday morning when he was asked for his identification.

But the Palestinian news agency also included this caveat: “To be noted, Israeli police and army forces often resort to fatally shooting Palestinians – who are involved in alleged attacks against Israelis – while making no effort to apprehend them”.

And in East Jerusalem police say a Palestinian was shot dead after trying to stab officers during an identity check.

Israel: Three Palestinians, who tried to stab Israelis, were shot dead in Israel’s West Bank on Saturday.

The unrest that has engulfed Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, the most serious in years, has claimed the lives of 34 Palestinians and seven Israelis.

The mounting death toll has prompted fears of a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, like those of 1987-93 and 2000-05, when thousands were killed in near-daily violence.

Israeli forces have been deployed in huge numbers in Jerusalem and on Wednesday began setting up checkpoints in parts of East Jerusalem.

The settler responded by opening fire on his assailant, the army said, adding that the Palestinian had tried but failed to wound the Jewish man.

Palestinian woman chant anti Israel slogans during the funeral procession of Ehab Hanani, 19, who was fatally shot during clashes with Israeli troops last Thursday, in the West Bank village of Beit Furik, on the outskirts of Nablus, Saturday, October 17, 2015.

This is not the first time that the Palestinian Authority has produced a conflicting account of an incident in which a Palestinian was shot dead after carrying out a terror attack.

Mutez Awaysat, 16, was killed by Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, WAFA reported, citing eyewitnesses.

Israeli United Nations Ambassador Danny Dannon said Palestinian incitement, not Israel’s decades-long military rule of Palestinians, was responsible for the outbreak of violence. The Palestinian teen is recovering in an Israeli hospital.

Masked Palestinian protesters hold up a makeshift Israeli flag which has a swastika replacing the Star of David during a demonstration in Hebron; 5.

The violence comes at a time when a possible partition of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean into two states – Palestine alongside Israel – is fading fast.

Referring to Friday’s attack at Joseph’s Tomb, the Israeli Foreign Ministry director general said, “Israel condemns in the strongest terms the attack, perpetrated just because it is a place where Jews pray”. Around 2,100 Palestinians, majority civilians, and 73 Israelis, majority soldiers, were killed. With no mastermind to pursue, that poses a major challenge to security forces.