Israel locks down Palestinian town after deadly attack

Scene from the attack on Israeli police officers at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on February 3, 2016.

A deadly firefight broke out Wednesday in the heart of Jerusalem between Israeli police officers and three Palestinian assailants armed with rifles, knives and bombs, Israeli police said.

According to police, a security guard at the entrance to the central bus station of the city, southeast of Tel Aviv, asked the two 13-year-olds – one of them carrying a backpack – to identify themselves. An Israeli border police woman died of wounds in a Palestinian stabbing and shooting attack in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, the Israeli police said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The incident raised tensions and a seven-week Israeli offensive against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip began on July 8 after cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks and an Israeli roundup of suspected militants in the West Bank.

“I hope that the message will be relayed that actions of this kind are revolting and that we as a society will not accept them”, prosecutor Uri Korb said. After being approached by officers, one of the terrorists produced his ID, while another opened fire.

“President Abbas continues to claim, on the surface, that he believes in a two-state solution while simultaneously celebrating those who murder Israelis in cold blood as ‘martyrs.’ If he is serious in stopping the cycle of violence, he should speak out against these crimes and not condone them”, the WJC president said.

A wave of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings carried out by Palestinians has killed 27 Israelis and a U.S. citizen since October.

The two 17 and 16-year-old defendants, whose names were withheld from publication due to their age, and an adult ringleader, pleaded guilty in November for abducting, bludgeoning, strangling and burning 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khudair.

As the case unfolded, the three defendants turned on each other, with the minors attempting to place most of the blame on Ben David, who they said had given them pills before the killing.

Israeli officials see home demolitions as a deterrent measure and often map out homes of attackers for future demolitions, though the actual razings usually do not occur until months after attacks if at all.

Since mid-September, 26 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks and at least 154 Palestinians have died from Israeli fire, including 109 Israel says were attackers. The Palestinians say it is rooted in frustrations stemming from almost 50 years of Israeli occupation.

Israel’s former foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told Israeli TV that Israel needed to do more to stop the violence, even though Israel has been criticized in worldwide forums as being too harsh in its responses to the attacks.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, for its part, confirmed the death of the three Palestinians – all of whom hailed from the West Bank city of Jenin – in Jerusalem.

Israel destroyed a large number of tunnels in the 2014 Gaza war, the third conflict to hit the Palestinian enclave since 2008.