Palestinian attackers killed, 2 Israelis die in Jerusalem

Israeli police Wednesday shot dead two unidentified Palestinians, following alleged knives-stabbing attacks against Israeli settlers in Bab el-Khalil, also known as Jaffa Gate in the old city of Jerusalem.

Two of the victims were seriously injured, and one was slightly injured, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

“We can see that this was an organised attack by two terrorists that co-ordinated together, but we don’t see at this moment in time any connections between any organized terrorist cell”, he told the Jerusalem Post.

Samri said one of the people wounded had apparently been hurt by police gunfire aimed at the stabbers.

The attack comes almost 24 hours before tens of thousands of Christians from around the globe are expected to make a pilgrimage to the Old City to celebrate Christmas. She added that the two Palestinians were killed.

Since mid-September, near-daily Palestinian stabbing, shooting and auto ramming attacks have killed 19 Israelis and an American student.

The stabbings are the latest in an upsurge of violence in the last three months. “But that’s something that we continue to look into, both the Israeli National Police and internal security”.

Palestinians have grown frustrated with Israel’s occupation, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership, while worldwide efforts to end the violence have so far failed.

The assailants were reportedly identified as Palestinians from the Qalandia area in the occupied West Bank.

The Shin Bet said it had also found an apartment in Abu Dis rented by the group’s leader and equipped with materials that could be used to make bombs. One of their bullets may have accidentally caused the second Israeli fatality.

A number of the suspects had agreed to carry out suicide bombings in return for money from Hamas in Gaza, the Shin Bet said.