Palestinian dressed as newsman stabs soldier, shot dead: Army

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, under pressure over recent comments that a few have labelled incitement, quickly condemned the fire at the site known as Joseph’s Tomb in the northern city of Nablus.

“The Israel Defense Forces immediately pledged to hunt down those behind the attack on what is believed to contain the remains of the biblical patriarch, Joseph”. Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including a laborer disguised as a journalist who stabbed an Israeli soldier. At least 30 Palestinians, including several of the attackers, have been killed in the growing unrest.

Video captured at the scene shows a young man dressed in a fluorescent yellow traffic vest and black t-shirt with the stenciled word “Press”.

Israeli officials say tearing down homes of terrorists can deter future attacks, while Palestinians see the tactic as unfair collective punishment that hurts innocent women and children.

Following the transfer of control of Nablus and the general area encompassing the tomb to the Palestinians in the early 1990s, there were a series of outbreaks of violence in which Arab rioters and gunmen from Arafat’s Fatah militias shot at Jewish worshipers and the tomb’s military outpost.

It is not the first time the Palestinians have attacked the tomb. He said a committee would investigate and the damage would be repaired.

A statement from his office said Abbas “stressed his rejection of these actions and all actions that violate law and order, and which distort our culture, our morals and our religion”.

The army said it declared the area around Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the central Strip a closed military zone after protesters breached the border fence in the area. “The threat of infiltration was posing a direct threat to communities nearby”, the spokesperson was quoted by Maan as saying, with Israeli forces using riot dispersal means and firing at “main instigators”.

In recent days, Israeli security forces have swiftly shot dead two Palestinian teenagers who attacked with knives. One man died in Gaza on Friday from wounds sustained in a clash a week ago.

Security in Jerusalem has been bolstered ahead of Friday prayers to prevent further violence. No resolution is planned for Friday, but there might be an attempt to get the council to issue a statement urging the two sides to curb the violence.

The clashes came as hundreds of residents marched in Gaza City in solidarity with their compatriots in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

“This intifada (uprising) will continue in various forms”, Hanani said.

The Palestinian representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, has accused Israeli security forces of escorting Jewish hardliners onto the Temple Mount and into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. “While the Palestinians brazenly lie about us harming the status quo on the Temple Mount, they go out and burn and desecrate the sacred places of Israel, and that won’t be forgiven”, added Uri Ariel, Israel’a Agriculture Minister.

This week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry addressed the boom in settlements.