In Thursday’s first attack, a Palestinian stabbed a 25-year-old Jewish man in Jerusalem, leaving him in serious condition. The attacker was arrested.
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Over the past week, four Israelis have been killed along with seven Palestinians, four of them after alleged attacks on Israelis.
A comment posted this week on the Facebook page of a prominent far-right Israeli settler activist called for people to use clubs to beat Arabs in Jerusalem’s Old City, where two Israelis were stabbed to death.
The attacker was shot dead as he attempted to flee the scene. Speaking to business leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he said he was committed to “peaceful popular resistance” though he backs the protesters who have barricaded themselves inside Al-Aqsa and clashed with Israeli police.
An Israeli man stabbed four Arabs in the south of the country Friday morning and a Palestinian later stabbed a 14-year-old Israeli in Jerusalem police said, as spiking tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank threatened to spread throughout Israel.
That, in turn, sparked angry threats from several Arab polticians who said Mr Netanyahu had no moral authority over them.
Non-Muslim visitors are only allowed to enter the site at specific hours and are banned by police from praying there.
The body of a suspected stabber lays on the street after he was killed by an Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Israeli media reported the stabber said after his arrest that he carried out the attacks in retaliation for the numerous Palestinian attacks on Israelis this week.
Netanyahu issued the new rule before his speech to the United Nations last week, and but has not yet communicated it directly to cabinet ministers, who will be personally informed of the directive very soon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has banned Israeli cabinet ministers and legislators from visiting a sensitive Jerusalem holy site where rising tensions have spilled over into a wave of Palestinian attacks.
Though at diplomatic loggerheads with Netanyahu over peace talks that stalled in April 2014, the U.S.-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has also said he seeks no escalation.
In 2000, then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount – known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary – shortly before the second Palestinian intifada erupted.
Four Israelis have been killed in attacks over the past week.
“This is the Israeli failure here”, said an Arabic merchant in Jerusalem’s old city.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was photographed yesterday carrying an assault rifle during a visit to an Arab neighbourhood in the Arab east of the city.
The suspect stabbed the victims, who were lightly wounded, with a screwdriver before another soldier in the area shot him dead, police said.
Israel has beefed up security in response to the violence in Jerusalem, and on Thursday police set up metal detectors at the entrance to Israel’s Old City.
Muslim men under the age of 50 will be prevented from attending prayers at the site, Israeli police spokesman Mikey Rosenfeld said. Another security assessment will be made before Friday prayers, Israeli police said.
The attacks were initially confined to east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.
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Dozens of Palestinian protesters threw stones at Israeli troops near the West Bank city of Ramallah and elsewhere on Thursday. He said one of the men was shot before being detained and taken in for questioning. At least 171 Palestinians were wounded in the clashes, it said. The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said 288 Palestinians were injured, including 10 by live fire.
