Clashes erupt across West Bank following months of tensions over holy site

On Tuesday Israel demolished homes of two Palestinian militants who carried out deadly attacks in Jerusalem a year ago.

Recent bloodshed has included a drive-by shooting that killed an Israeli couple in the West Bank on Thursday and an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents in July.

Administrative detention is a controversial practice that allows Israeli authorities to hold a person without charge or trial. Both attackers were killed by officers who attempted to neutralise them. Although Ghassan Abu Jaber was immediately killed, Israel often carries out such demolitions of the homes of militants’ families, believing it will deter future attacks.

Also on Tuesday, troops sealed off a room at the home of another Palestinian, ahead of its potential demolition.

“Leadership is needed from public leaders, including the settler movement – maybe first and foremost with the settler movement”, Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

Human rights groups like Yesh Din have long protested what it calls “standing idly by”, whereby the army does nothing to stop settler attacks against Palestinians.

Jerusalem’s Old City has also been the site of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police since September 13 because of heavy restrictions on entry to the revered Al-Aqsa mosque compound during a series of Jewish holidays. “Experience shows us that Israel can not prevent Palestinian freedom by forceful measures”. The two Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces in November 2014.

“Since October 3, at least 500 Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem“, the Palestinian Red Crescent said in statement.

On Monday, 39 were injured when a stand-off between Palestinian youths and the IDF in Ramallah turned violent, according to Palestinian media.

At the Qalandia checkpoint near Jerusalem soldiers fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of angry Palestinians.

Violence has intensified in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, raising concerns of a wider escalation, though it has not yet reached the level of past Israeli-Palestinian confrontations.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for global protection of the Palestinian state.

“We tell them (the Israelis) that we do not want either military or security escalation”, Abbas said at the PLO meeting. “All our instructions to our (security) agencies, our factions and our youth have been that we do not want escalation”.

Yasser Abdu, 40, a neighbour and friend of the Abu Jamals accused Israel of a “policy of collective punishment”.

For all of their global grandstanding, the PA continues to work alongside Hamas in a unity government with one goal – the elimination of Israel and Jewish people around the world.