Fresh violence hits West Bank amid Christmas celebrations

Israeli forces Thursday shot dead an unidentified Palestinian man near the illegal settlement of Adam, located on the land of Jaba town, northwest of Jerusalem. She said the assailants were from the occupied West Bank and local mosques mourned their deaths. They were taken to Beillinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah where the male guard reportedly is in serious condition and the female guard is in moderate condition.

A wave of violence which began nearly three months ago has shown no sign of dying down and has raised fears of a wider escalation, a decade after the last Palestinian uprising subsided. Israeli forces or armed civilians have killed at least 124 Palestinians, 76 of whom authorities described as assailants, while others died in clashes with security forces.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has voiced concerns over the excessive use of force and “extrajudicial killing” of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

Police identified the two attackers as Palestinians in their early 20s from the West Bank.

Rosenfeld said there were two attackers, one who was fatally shot at the scene and one who died at a hospital.

Some observers attribute the recent uptick in violence to a July arson attack in the West Bank by suspected Jewish settlers that killed an 18-month-old Palestinian child and his parents.

A Palestinian woman tried to ram a auto into Israeli border guards in a village in the occupied West Bank on Friday, before being shot dead, the police said. The soldiers shot and killed the attacker. No Israelis have been wounded.

The video, broadcast by an Israeli news programme, has spread online and drawn strong condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called the images “shocking” and called participants “a danger to Israeli society”.

A wave of violence since the start of October has claimed the lives of 127 on the Palestinian side, 19 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.

During questioning, it emerged that the cell was led by a 24-year-old Palestinian from the Kalkiya area, 24-year-old Ahmed Azam, the Shin Bet said.

A court official said security had been stepped up outside the home of a judge presiding over the case, and postings on social media, including a photograph of the jurist emblazoned with the word “guilty”, accused him of failing to stop Shin Bet mistreatment of the suspects.