Violent clashes hit West Bank after stabbings

In East Jerusalem’s Old City, an Israeli man was reportedly stabbed and injured by Shurooq Dweiyat, a 19-year-old Palestinian woman.

But Israeli military officials have noted that security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, is continuing.

He criticised a statement from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who said last month that Palestinians will not allow Al-Aqsa to be spoiled by “filthy feet”.

The mayor of Jerusalem called on the city’s residents on Thursday to carry weapons at all times as the security situation in the city continues to deteriorate in the wake of a wave of deadly attacks in the last week.

Palestinians inspect the home of the Abu Jaber family that was…

In yet another attack, an Israeli was stabbed in the West Bank by a Palestinian, police said. Several soldiers can be seen punching and kicking the detained man while one soldier says in Hebrew, “bring that trash here”. The man shot the woman, who was taken to a hospital in serious condition.

On Wednesday, stabbings occurred outside a crowded mall in central Israel, in a southern Israeli town and in the Old City of Jerusalem. He was shot dead by police special forces.

Tensions have been running high after Israel imposed a ban on non-resident Palestinians visiting the Old City on Sunday, unless they lived, worked or studied there.

YouTube on Wednesday removed one of two Palestinian propaganda videos from its website that seem to encourage stabbing attacks against Jews and Israelis, after Israel’s Foreign Ministry complained that the clips glorify and promote terror.

“We’re in the midst of a wave of terror”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters during a tour of a police command center in Jerusalem. More than 130 Palestinians have been wounded in demonstrations and clashes across the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Most of the wounded have been treated for tear gas inhalation.

Israel lifted age restrictions from Wednesday on Muslims praying at the sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The hilltop compound is the third holiest site to Muslims, who revered it as the Noble Sanctuary, and the holiest site for Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount.

Many Palestinians believe Israel is trying to expand the Jewish presence at the site, a claim Israel adamantly denies. Palestinians have repeatedly barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque there, and hurled stones, firebombs and fireworks at the police.

Netanyahu postponed a visit to Germany that had been scheduled for Thursday to tackle the violence.

Netanyahu is under heavy pressure, particularly from hard-liners in his governing coalition, to respond with a tough crackdown.

Abbas insisted the Palestinians are not interested in a further escalation.

In the occupied West Bank, men thought to be undercover Israeli police opened fire on Palestinian stone-throwers in a group they had infiltrated, wounding three of them.

Amnesty global said dozens more in the West Bank were killed by Israeli soldiers in 2014; “In many cases, it appears that the killings were unlawful, and a few may have been either willful killings or extrajudicial executions”, the human rights organization stated.