In Israel, New York City mayor calls for end to violence

The Palestinian journalists union said the knife attacker had no links to any media outlets and urged Israel not to use the event as an excuse to attack its press members.

There have been near-daily stabbings by Palestinians of Israelis this month, as violence between the two sides spirals.

The violence erupted a month ago over the Jewish New Year, fueled by rumors that Israel was plotting to take over Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, a hilltop compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest shrine and a key national symbol for the Palestinians.

Zerihoun warned Israel that the current crisis can not be resolve security measures alone. He accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of leading “the risky incitement” with his “hate-filled speech” and claims that Israel is trying to change the status quo at the Jerusalem site.

The military said a few 30 Jews descended upon the Joseph’s Tomb compound in Nablus, a site revered by Jews as the tomb of the biblical figure Joseph.

At least seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in the violence so far, while 37 Palestinians have died and hundreds more been wounded in clashes.

Five Palestinians were killed Friday in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Most of the attacks on Israelis have been carried out by Palestinians with no known ties to militant groups. In that time, 33 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 16 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops.

The latest incidents come a day after Palestinians called for a “Friday of revolution” against Israel.

Israeli troops opened fire in several locations, killing three Palestinians, including two in Gaza and a 19-year-old in the town of Beit Furik in the West Bank.

The attacker’s name has not been released, but local journalists said they did not know him.

The Palestinians, of course, think the United Nations should be investigating the Israelis, who made the mistake of defending themselves against these attacks. “People are fed up”. Flames blackened exterior walls of the small stone structure, a frequent site of Israeli-Palestinian clashes in the past.

According to a World Bank report released in September, one-quarter of the Palestinian labour force is unemployed, and in Gaza, it is as high as 60 per cent. One-quarter of Palestinians live in poverty, the report found. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said the attack violates freedom of worship and that the military will “bring the perpetrators of this despicable act to justice”.

The site is located in an area under Palestinian self-rule and visits by Jews are coordinated between Palestinian security forces and Israeli troops.

A Palestinian man wearing a T-shirt with the word “press” in large letters stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier before being shot dead by troops.

“We have reached the point of praying and saying goodbye to our families before we go outside … it feels like this is a modern way for Israel to ethnically cleanse us from Jerusalem – there is no one holding back the settlers or the soldiers from attacking us”.

“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 added.

The incident heightened concerns among journalists about their safety.

Thirteen-year-old Ahmed Manasra, who reportedly commited a stabbing attack in Pisgat Ze’ev in Jerusalem, is seen after treatment at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem.

To Israelis he is a young terrorist who, CCTV footage appears to show, stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli boy who is now in a serious condition in hospital. But Dina Matar, of the Centre for Media Studies at SOAS in London and author of “What It Means to be Palestinian”, said that within Palestinian communities viral videos are more representative of frustration than a cause of it. The Foreign Press Association for Israel and the Palestinian territories said it “marks a worrying development” that demands all media operate with greater caution.