Two Palestinian stabbings thwarted, attackers killed

“IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said: ‘The burning and desecration of Joseph’s tomb…is a blatant violation and contradiction of the basic value of freedom of worship”. There was no word on the attacker’s condition.

A video circulated by Palestinian activists showed a young man wearing a kippa brandishing a pistol as shots rang out before Israeli soldiers moved in to pull him away from a body on the ground. He met his Tel Aviv counterpart Ron Huldai and is slated to travel to Jerusalem to meet the city’s mayor later in the day.

Two separate attempted stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and Hebron were foiled Saturday morning after would-be assailants were shot at the scenes of each incident.

Palestinian protestors torched a site revered by Jews in the West Bank overnight in an incident that threatened to further inflame over two weeks of deadly unrest, as fresh protests were planned for Friday.

The first attack occurred in the West Bank city of Hebron when a Palestinian man tried to stab an Israeli settler.

“Right now, everybody needs to focus on making sure that innocent people aren’t being killed”, President Obama said during a press conference on Friday afternoon.

According to IMEMC, Youth Against Settlements questioned the military’s claim that the teen possessed a knife, especially since the fatal shooting took place in an area of Hebron where Palestinians are thoroughly searched by several soldiers guarding the community’s gates, using metal detection machines.

The Israeli deputy ambassador to the United Nations, David Roet, defended Israel’s approach, saying it faced an enemy “willing to die in order to kill” and was “responding proportionately”.

There were also clashes throughout the West Bank resulting in at least one Palestinian fatality with scores wounded.

Police spokeswoman Louba Samri said the Palestinian, who was not immediately identified, was killed on the spot after he tried to stab the soldier in the Israeli settlement neighbourhood of Armon Hanetsiv, also known as East Talpiot. Police immediately responded with live fire and killed him.

Map locating the latest violence in the West Bank. Other Hebrew-language news outlets reported the attacker died of his injuries after arriving at the hospital.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have been killed in the unrest – but the violence was seen to be triggered by rumors that Israel was plotting to take over Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Shortly after the arson attack on the tomb of biblical patriarch Joseph, Palestinian protesters threw stones over the border of the Gaza Strip at Israeli forces who fired back, killing two and wounding scores of others in the crowd, Palestinian medical officials said. The officer’s hand was “lightly wounded”.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the “reprehensible” attack at Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.