Palestinians shot dead as Israelis thwart knife attacks

“This is a stepping up from knife attacks to shooting”, Eli Ben-Dahan, Deputy Defense Minister, said after the incident. There were no further details.

Triggered by Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last month, protests against Israel’s occupation have increased in frequency across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. There was no word on the attacker’s condition.

“Everybody is anxious that it will be open season on reporters”, said Glenys Sugarman, executive director of the FPA, which represents journalists who work for worldwide news outlets and cover Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Mayor Bill De Blasio kicked off a brief visit to Israel on Saturday, saying he was on a solidarity mission with the country at a “painful moment” after weeks of violence.

De Blasio met with his Tel Aviv counterpart, Ron Huldai, in the seaside city early Saturday before attending an event sponsored by a mixed Israeli-Palestinian school.

The stabbing of an Israeli soldier by a Palestinian attacker posing as a journalist has heightened safety concerns among those covering the daily Israeli-Palestinian violence.

A series of attacks, mostly stabbings, have unnerved Israel, which has responded by beefing up security nationwide and imposing checkpoints in Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

CNN has seen no reports of a third incident from Palestinian sources.

Police say a Palestinian tried to stab a Jewish settler who was armed and shot him dead.

Also in Hebron, a Palestinian teenage girl tried to stab a female Israeli soldier outside a border guard base before being shot dead by her would-be victim, and a Palestinian man was shot after stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier, though it was unclear whether the assailant was killed.

A Palestinian holding Palestinian flags stands on a burning auto belonging to Jewish settlers after it was set on fire by Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus, October 18, 2015. Even if a Palestinian journalist possesses one, it does not necessarily help when clashes spontaneously erupt and troops use various means to suppress unrest.

Forty-four Palestinians have been killed this month in Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian Authority Health Ministry spokesman Osama al-Najjar told CNN.

The 16-year-old Palestinian pulled out a knife at Border Police officers after they asked him to present his ID card. According to IDF, an assailant attempted to stab a policeman but the knife did not penetrate the officer’s flak jacket, prompting the officer to fire upon and wound his assailant.

Palestinians carry the body of Iyad Awawdeh (26) during his funeral in the West Bank village of Dora, near Hebron.

While defending Israels right to protect its citizens, he called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to tamp down rhetoric that might feed violence. After the attack, a crowd of Israelis gathered outside the bus station and chanted “death to Arabs”.

An Israeli security forces jeep ignites after Palestinian protesters threw a Molotov cocktail at it during clashes near the Beit El settlement on the outskirts of Ramallah in the West Bank, on October 17.

A number of the wounded were police officers. In that time, 31 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 14 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops.

But he said that “reckless statements made by Palestinian and Israeli extremist elements reinforced by a few mainstream voices as well” had created a different impression.

Saturday’s incident took place in a Jewish neighborhood of Hebron, a frequent flashpoint where a few hundred Jews live in close proximity to tens of thousands of Palestinians. The Palestinian was being evacuated for treatment.