Kerry: Foreign presence not needed at Jerusalem holy site

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, speaks with Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo before a meeting at the Viana Palace in Madrid, Spain, Sunday October. 18, 2015. A foreign worker was killed Sunday by Israelis after being mistakenly identified as an Arab attacker.

Police say the attacker was armed with a gun and knife and opened fire in a southern Israeli bus station, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding 10 people.

Nine Israelis have been killed this month by Arabs attacking them with knives, guns and cars.

Israeli news websites posted security camera footage that shows Zerhom crawling on the floor and a security guard shooting him.

About 34,000 Eritrean migrants are in Israel.

An Israeli hospital official says an Eritrean migrant shot during an attack on a bus station has died of his wounds.

The latest developments in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence (all times local). To these more liberal Israelis, the apparently perpetual occupation of the Palestinians is a moral stain that also, by tying Israel inexorably to a Palestinian population equal to its 6 million Jews, contains the seeds of self-inflicted ruination. Authorities have blocked roads and placed checkpoints at the entrances of Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. “The security solution is not a wall, the security solution is to go into the neighborhoods and confront the attackers there and stop them”. Soldiers have been deployed in Jerusalem and cities across Israel.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the barrier, a row of six concrete slabs about five meters (16 feet) high, was meant to protect Armon Hanatziv from rocks and firebombs lobbed from Jabal Mukaber.

The Palestinians call Israel’s 1948 “War of Independence” the “naqba”, meaning catastrophe.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the area in a move that is not recognized internationally.

Israelis feel that past leaders who in vain offered the Palestinians a state in Gaza and nearly all the West Bank with a foothold in Jerusalem – in 2001 and 2008 – were acting in good faith and exposed Palestinian intransigence.

An Israeli official said France’s ambassador to Israel has been summoned to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in the wake of France’s proposal. “It’s one more aspect of our security measures”. It did not prevent pedestrians from leaving or entering.

Many believe the Arab world is not ready for democracy – the failures of the Arab Spring hardly negate such a thesis – and the Palestinians should be happy with their lot compared with the brutal dictatorships and murderous chaos that have typified other corners of the Middle East, past and present.

African migrants frequently complain of racial discrimination in Israel. He was shot and killed in the attack.

The daily attacks have caused a sense of panic across Israel and raised fears that the region is on the cusp of a new round of heavy violence. The clashes were fueled by Palestinian allegations that Israel seeks to change the status quo banning Jewish prayer at the site, allegations Israel denies. It accuses the Palestinians of inciting to violence through the false claims.

Also taking place on Sunday, the Israeli military has removed at least 30 Jews, the AP reports who “descended upon the Joseph’s Tomb compound in Nablus, a site revered by Jews as the tomb of the biblical figure Joseph”.

“Everyone, including Russian Federation and Iran, has said there is no military solution”, he added. With little control over their travel, they observe helplessly the constant expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied land between their disconnected areas. The military said Sunday’s visit was not, and the worshippers had no permit. The plan had been seen as a way to boost security for Israelis amid escalating tension with Palestinians and multiple stabbing and shootings in recent weeks. One of them was lightly wounded and five were taken for police questioning.

Kerry will be meeting this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah and he said they would be looking “to be able to find a way of making certain that everybody is clear with what is happening with respect to the Temple Mount”.

“Israel is not the problem at the Temple Mount, Israel is the solution”, he told his Cabinet. “Israel understands the importance of that status quo”.