Netanyahu vows ‘knife terror’ won’t beat Israel as stabbings multiply

On his Facebook page Mohammad Halabi, 19, said he was prepared to die in the name of a new intifada before stabbing to death two Israelis in the Old City of Jerusalem and being shot dead himself.

That violence followed earlier incidents. The BBC, one of the first to report on the attack, published a headline that read, “Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two”.

Numerous Palestinian killers were shot dead in their acts.

A Palestinian witness who was walking by heard the gunshots. Police say they shot the other attacker and killed him when he ran at officers with a knife raised and ignored calls to stop.

The Jerusalem attacks, along with two stabbings in a central Israeli city, marked the most serious outbreak of violence since the current round of tensions erupted. One of them, a 13-year old boy who had been riding his bike, was critically injured. The attacker was shot dead.

At the scene of one of the attacks, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called on the government to seal off the West Bank and certain Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem to quell the wave of attacks that have struck the city. She said the man then attacked the officer with a knife, but he was wearing a protective vest and was not injured.

October 1, 2015 – Rabbi Eitam Henkin, 31, and his wife Na’ama, 30, of Neria, parents of six, were killed in a drive-by shooting attack on the road between Itamar and Elon Moreh in Samaria at about 9 p.m. on Thursday night.

Close friends of the Palestinian’s family identified him as Mustafa al Khateeb, an 18-year-old from East Jerusalem who was in his past year of high school.

Four Israelis and 26 Palestinians, including eight alleged attackers and eight children, have died in 12 days of bloodshed, the worst spell of street violence for years, stirred in part by Muslim anger over increasing Jewish visits to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. “The Israeli government is escalating its strong offensive against the Palestinian people everywhere”. Over the weekend, nine Palestinians in Gaza, including a mother and her 2-year-old child, were killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence. The violence has also spread to the border with Gaza. Another rocket launched from Gaza Sunday hit an open area in southern Israel without causing any reported injuries, it said.

The multiple attacks with knives or similar implements have been perpetrated by Palestinians and allegedly an Israeli Arab who denies the charge. The riot took place under the watch of Hamas soldiers, an extremist Palestinian Islamic organization with an associated military, whose leader Ismail Haniyeh is calling for Palestine to take up arms against Israel.

A few 25 Palestinians have been killed amid the unrest, including alleged attackers.

In the afternoon, an Israeli police officer confronted a Palestinian woman who was acting suspiciously, Samri said. In that time over two dozen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and more than 1,300 Palestinians have been wounded in daily clashes in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.

Sponsored by Ayelet Shaked, the justice minister who is notorious for her violent anti-Palestinian incitement, the new law would allow both penalties to be issued at once. But others have dismissed that label, saying the unrest is simply the effect of the absence of any move toward peace.

Another youth chimed in: “We’ve tried negotiations and it didn’t work. So now we will fight”, one Palestinian youth in the West Bank city of Hebron told CNN as thick smoke rose from flaming tires.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the deployment of up to 2,000 paramilitary Border Police reservists in occupied East Jerusalem. The additional force will continue as necessary as “a primary preventive and deterrent measure”, the statement said. Located in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, it is Islam’s third holiest site and is also revered by Jews as the site of two destroyed biblical temples.

Devoid of any hope of a political solution and angry at both the Palestinian leadership and Israel, theattackers have terrified Israelis and prompted what human rights groups have described as a disturbing trend towards the use of “excessive force” from the Israeli security forces.

Israel has repeatedly said it is committed to the status quo and has accused Palestinian and Muslim religious leaders of inciting violence.

“All the [Palestinian] Authority’s efforts are directed at restoring calm”, Abbas said on Monday, according to Channel 2.

Journalists Jodi Rudoren and Diaa Hadid (with additional reporters from Jerusalem, the West Bank, Ramallah, and Bethlehem), seem to be practicing “proportional” or “equivalency” journalism as opposed to “objective” journalism. Amir Tal reported from Jerusalem.