Palestinian Knife Attack Leaves 2 Israelis Dead

Police spokesperson Luba Samri said the Palestinian attacker took a gun from one of the wounded men and opened fire at police and tourists.

Aharon Bennet, 21, a religious Jew serving in the military, was walking through the Old City with his family when a Palestinian youth attacked them with a knife, Israeli media reported.

Two Jewish men, one walking with his wife and infant and the other rushing to his aid, were stabbed to death Saturday in Jerusalem’s Old City, Israeli officials and news reports said.

Israeli border policemen stand in front of the West Bank side of the examine point between Jerusalem & Bethlehem throughout clashes with Palestinian demonstrators Friday., October 2, 2015.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would meet with security officials Sunday to decide upon a “harsh offensive on Palestinian Islamic terror”, according to a statement on his Facebook page.

It is hoped that the violence and attacks won’t escalate and make the problem worse as tensions are rising between the Jewish settlers and the Palestinians in the area.

Israeli soldiers evacuated the al-Aqsa Mosque compound after arresting at least 40 worshippers following the first attack on Saturday.

Worship at the sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound will be restricted to Old City residents and Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin, and limited to men aged 50 and above.

She said police had seen a Palestinian man holding a knife and he was shot and killed at the scene. Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, praised the attack as “a heroic act of resistance”.

The West Bank is land Israel captured in a 1967 Middle East war that Palestinians want for a future state. Though not on the ranges of earlier Palestinian uprisings or “Intifadas”, it has raised Israeli fears of a higher escalation.

The raids into the Haram al Sharif, one of Islam’s holiest places, along with military restrictions on Muslim worshippers have stoked tensions and touched off clashed on and around the compound that spread across the West Bank.

The Jewish Sukkot Holiday, lasting eight-days, started last Sunday and has been going on all week.

The attack left Israeli settlers Eitam and Naama Henkin dead in their vehicle as they were driving in the Nablus area of the northern West Bank.

Abbas in his United Nations speech accused Israel of trying to change the status quo at the site, which bars non-Muslim prayer, or to divide it. Netanyahu denied this in his speech, and accused Abbas of inciting the violence.