IDF Says 3 Palestinians Shot After Attempted Knife Attacks

Joseph’s Tomb has been the scene of recurring violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Neither side related its accounts to those reported by the other side.

Palestinian assailants have been carrying out near-daily stabbing attacks against Israelis that have spread from Jerusalem to elsewhere in the country.

The Palestinian official news agency had a different report.

According to Israeli police, Motaaz Ewaisat, 16, was killed on the scene.

The Israeli military says it has removed dozens of Jewish worshippers who illegally entered a biblical shrine in the West Bank that was recently torched by Palestinians.

The assailant was shot in Saturday night’s incident. He was then shot and killed.

It was the second deadly confrontation of the day in Hebron, where the military says an Israeli pedestrian shot dead a Palestinian who tried to stab him. The border policewoman shot and killed the suspect. One of them was lightly wounded and five were taken for police questioning.

The arson attack on Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus came as Palestinians called for a “Friday of revolution” against Israel and as clashes along the border with the Gaza Strip saw Israeli fire kill two Palestinians and wound 98.

Palestinian protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank, Saturday, October 17, 2015.

In an editorial published on Wednesday, the New York Post accused the Obama administration of “winking” at the Palestinian Authority’s incitement to terrorism and violence against Israelis, and took Secretary of State John Kerry to task for his recent comments on the upsurge in violence. 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.

After the attack, a crowd of Israelis gathered outside the bus station and chanted “death to Arabs”, a sign of rising tensions over the violence. Both sides have turned up gruesome video recordings to support their claims.

Muslims believe an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yussef (Joseph) Dawiqat was buried there two centuries ago. It’s been targeted before – including in 2011 when vandals painted swastikas on its walls.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said a 16-year-old Palestinian drew a knife on officers in Jerusalem when they stopped him to ask for identification after a bystander said he was behaving suspiciously.

Most of the attacks on Israelis have been carried out by Palestinians with no known ties to militant groups.

He said those talks have foundered, and “I think it’s going to be up to the parties…to see if they can restart a more constructive relationship”, the president said.

At least 1,700 Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire, the ministry said. Others are applying for permits. Worldwide human rights observers trying to document this senseless killing were detained by Israeli forces and then one of them was arrested for “taking pictures and posting them online”.

Meanwhile, he detailed the recent attacks among Israelis and Palestinians, including stabbing attacks on Israeli civilians and the killings of Palestinians by security forces. “It’s time that president Abbas stops not only justifying it, but also calling for it”, Netanyahu told reporters. “They were very angry and wanted to attack the soldiers”, he said of the stone-throwers, majority teens.

Palestinian resentments are hardly new, but Israelis and Palestinians have had better relations at times.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms violence directed against innocent people, and believe that Israel has a right to maintain basic law and order, and protect its citizens from knife attacks and violence on the streets”, he said.

“Israel is not the problem at the Temple Mount, Israel is the solution”, he told his Cabinet.

Israel on Friday rejected Palestinian calls for a protection force to be deployed in east al-Quds to quell violence around the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque. The tomb has become a popular prayer site in recent years among a few sects of religious Jews.