Suspected Palestinian attackers killed in Jerusalem

Three Palestinians die in three separate incidents in occupied East Jerusalem after they reportedly attacked Israelis.

Israeli police stand next to the body of a dead Palestinian assailant at the spot where he stabbed two Israeli Jews before he was shot dead outside Jerusalem''s Old City
The latest violence has prompted talk of a third 'Intifada' [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

Israeli forces have shot dead three Palestinians in separate incidents in East Jerusalem after they reportedly attacked Israelis, the latest incidents in a wave of violence across Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

A 16-year-old Palestinian was killed on Saturday near occupied East Jerusalem’s walled Old City after he stabbed two Orthodox Jewish men, Israeli police said.

Earlier on Saturday, another Palestinian was shot dead by paramilitary police after he opened fire at them during late-night clashes at the Palestinian Shuafat refugee camp, police said.

Hamas, Palestinian group which controls the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that the victim was a member of their organisation.

“The hero martyr fought the Israeli occupation with language they understand,” Hamas said.

In another incident on Saturday, an attacker was shot dead after a stabbing attempt near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. 

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a “terrorist” was shot by Israeli police after stabbing three police officer were also stabbed in the incident.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Jerusalem, said of the three Israelis injured, one was seriously wounded.

“Israeli police have said that the officer in a serious condition may have been shot by what the spokesman says was friendly fire,” Hanna said.

Days of unrest

Saturday’s violence is a continuation of 11 days of unrest in which four Israelis and 17 Palestinians have been killed in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, Gaza and in Israeli cities.

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Scores of Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli troops and at least 12 Israelis have been wounded in almost daily Palestinian stabbing attacks.

The violence has been fuelled by Palestinian fears that visits by Jewish groups, including legislators, to the Jerusalem Old City are eroding Muslim religious control of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest shrine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly he will not allow any change to the arrangements under which Jews are allowed to visit the site but non-Muslim prayer is banned.

The violence is not of the intensity of two Palestinian uprisings in the late 1980s and early 2000s but it has prompted talk of a third “intifada”.

Earlier violence

On Friday, Israeli soldiers shot dead seven Palestinians in protests near the Gaza border and a knife-wielding Israeli wounded four Palestinians in the southern Israeli town of Dimona.

In the northern town of Afula, a Palestinian woman was shot several times and wounded by police who closed in on her as she held up a knife, a video clip circulated on social media showed. Police said she had tried to stab a bus station guard.


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In Jerusalem’s Old City, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a 14-year-old Israeli boy, and near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli policeman before being shot dead.

There was also violence in the West Bank city of Ramallah, with video footage showing an Israeli army jeep running over a stone-throwing Palestinian, who was injured.

Also on Friday, the Israeli military said a rocket was fired from Gaza into southern Israel. No group claimed responsibility. The attack caused no casualties or damage.

Both Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have called for calm and Palestinian police continue to coordinate with Israeli security forces to try to restore order, but there are few signs of the violence dying down.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza – lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, for a future state. US-brokered peace talks broke down in April 2014. 

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies