‘Palestinian attacker’ shot dead in Jerusalem

Israeli security forces said they shot dead two Palestinian assailants on Saturday in separate incidents in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, as 12 weeks of heightened violence showed no sign of abating. Eyewitnesses refuted the military allegations. The soldier, 21, was in moderate but stable condition with a stab wound to his upper body.

One Palestinian witness, Suhail Hamed, 39, said the police opened fire when the auto was 150 metres (yards) away from them.

Her family, however, denied the Israeli allegations and said she was killed in cold blood, without posing a threat to the Israeli soldiers.

The attacks on Sunday are the latest in a series of deadly stabbing incidents attributed to the Palestinian-Israeli tensions since mid-September.

The soldier injured in the car-ramming was 20 years of age and sustained light wounds before being taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, according to Israeli media.

Both victims were apparently soldiers guarding at a gas station in the village, along Route 60, a main north-south West Bank artery used by Palestinians and Israeli settlers alike.

According to the Israel Police, the terrorist, 30, was held by a nearby security guard after the attack until police officers arrived at the scene.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, criticised the Palestinian Authority – which he said “encourages and incites” the attacks – at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Three Israeli soldiers were wounded in stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and two Palestinian assailants were killed.

Many 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.

Also stoking the violence has been Muslim opposition to stepped-up Israeli access to Jerusalem’s al Aqsa mosque complex, which many Jews revere as a vestige of their biblical temples.