Palestinian shot after stabbing soldier in West Bank

Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank set fire to a Jewish shrine near Nablus and stabbed an Israeli soldier near Hebron as tensions ran high after more than two weeks of violence.

Half an hour later, a second Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli police in the Armon HaNatziv neighborhood of the annexed east Jerusalem, police said. The man drew a knife and tried to stab the officers, who shot him dead, the spokesman said.

And in East Jerusalem police say a Palestinian was shot dead after trying to stab officers during an identity check.

The director-general of Israel’s foreign ministry, Dore Gold, said: “The burning of Joseph’s tomb forcefully demonstrates what would happen in the holy places in Jerusalem if they were in the hands of the Palestinian leadership”. One of the incidents occurred near Hebron where an armed Israeli civilian shot and killed a Palestinian terrorist coming at him with a knife. A few 38 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 18 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops.

The incident at the holy site overnight and the stabbing attacks or attempts on Saturday came after more than two weeks of relentless violence and unrest, raising fears of a full-scale Palestinian uprising.

Most of the attacks on Israelis have been carried out by Palestinians with no known ties to militant groups, in many cases seemingly inspired by messages on social media.

The violence began on October 1, when a suspected cell of the Islamist movement Hamas murdered a Jewish settler couple in the West Bank in front of their children.

The attacker was shot and evacuated to an Israeli hospital in serious condition, according to Israel Radio.

Al Jazeera reports that the continued violence follows an Israeli rejection of a Palestinian proposal to let an worldwide force police the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Israel’s military says an Israeli pedestrian shot and wounded a Palestinian who tried to stab him.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Germany next week to discuss the recent spate of violence between Israel and Palestinians, the Israeli ambassador to Washington said last night.

On Friday, Palestinian assailants firebombed a West Bank site revered by Jews as the tomb of biblical Joseph.

The United Nations on Friday warned of a possible religious fight that could have “catastrophic consequence” on both Israelis and Palestinians.

Palestinians have called for a “Friday of revolution” against Israel and Jerusalem police barred men under 40 years of age from attending the main weekly prayers at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque, seeking to keep young protesters away.

That and a ramp-up in violence by illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians and vandalizing their properties triggered the latest wave of deadly tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the occupied territories as well as the blockaded Gaza Strip.