Stabbing attacks thwarted in Jerusalem and West Bank

Many Israelis fear it is building into a full Palestinian intifada or uprising while Palestinian leaders have said a Israeli security crackdown amounts to collective punishment that will provoke more violence.

The unprecedented clampdown is meant to halt a rash of stabbings of Israelis.

Earlier, Kerry had called on Israel to uphold the status quo at the site in “word and deed” – the clear implication being that Netanyahu was in danger of breaching Israel’s obligations there. But a few allege he is dividing Jerusalem, something Netanyahu has said he would never do.

Over the last month, eight Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, majority stabbings. We can’t go anywhere and they ask us where we go and when we come back. “It’s one more aspect of our security measures”.

In the first, a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli pedestrian, but according to the IDF, the armed civilian shot the assailant dead.

Including alleged assailants, 41 Palestinians have been killed since an upsurge in violence began on October 1, while seven Israelis have lost their lives.

Shortly after, Israeli border police stopped to question a Palestinian man walking in “a suspicious manner” through a neighbourhood around East Jerusalem, a police spokesman said.

“This is what the future looks like”, said Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann.

They are often carried out by young Palestinians who may be acting out alone, or recruited or at least encouraged via social media, Israeli authorities have said.

Five Palestinians were killed Friday in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Abbas refuses to engage under such conditions.

The United States, which tried but failed past year to broker peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, has urged leaders on both sides to help rein in the unrest.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, rejects the notion that Palestinian attackers, including those in Jerusalem, are driven by anger over decades of Israeli rule.

Remember, much of this violence was stoked by rumors that Israel planned to strengthen Jewish rights at the compound, which is revered by both Jews and Muslims. To the contrary, it seeks to protect a status quo that guards Muslims’ right to pray and limits access by Jews, even though the site is also holy to them.

It comes amid heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. “But the primary problem here are the deliberate lies being spread” about the shrine, he said.

Jews consider the site in Nablus the final resting place of Joseph, a high Israelite patriarch and son of Jacob who, according to biblical accounts, was sold into slavery as a boy but then rose to become a powerful figure in ancient Egypt, second only to the pharaoh. This included building sprawling Jewish neighborhoods on annexed lands and permitting militant settlers to move into heavily guarded enclaves in Arab neighborhoods, such as the Muslim Quarter of the walled Old City. “It’s a war against all Palestinian people in Jerusalem”.

A Palestinian (right) posing as a journalist runs after a wounded Israeli soldier to continue stabbing him before being shot dead near the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday.

The incident saw a group of about 30 religious students from a school in Jerusalem travel to Joseph’s Tomb in the northern West Bank city of Nablus despite not having the required authorisation from Israel’s military.

The fifth stabbing on Saturday occurred at a border checkpoint in Qalandia. They line up about 20 feet from the checkpoint out of Isawiyya. Police were on edge, traded curses with the crowd; at one point, they threw a stun grenade into the line.

The recent knife attacks have confounded Israeli authorities. Writing in Hebrew on the barrier said it was a “temporary, mobile police barrier”.

Much of that hopelessness is found in Arab areas of east Jerusalem.

But the Palestinian version of the day’s violence was different.

“They are uniting us”, said Adel Obeid.