Witnesses said they had been fired at by Israeli snipers in guardposts along the border fence, about 400 metres away from where the Palestinians were protesting. It said that forces opened fire at the main instigators to stop their advance.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday barred all Cabinet ministers and members of the Knesset – Israel’s parliament – from visiting a disputed holy site in Jerusalem, the Associated Press reported.
The unrest is largely linked to Muslim agitation over Jewish access to a contested holy site in Jerusalem.
Israeli police say a soldier has been stabbed in an attack in northern Israel. Rosenfeld said the assailant was apprehended at the scene and was being questioned.
“As of now there are four stabbings”, spokeswoman Luba Samri said, adding that the motive appeared to be “nationalistic”. Police said she posed an “immediate threat”. At least two of the victims were Arab Israelis while it was still unclear whether the other two were Arab Israeli or Palestinian, police said.
The Afula attack came shortly after a Palestinian man attacked a police officer with a knife and tried to grab his gun near the entrance to the Kiryat Arba settlement in the West Bank.
In retaliation, the Israeli army killed six Palestinians, saying three of them were shot for stabbing Israelis.
The attack was the third stabbing against Israelis on Thursday, part a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in recent weeks.
Israel was in a state of lockdown this week after four Israeli Jews were killed and several others injured by Palestinian suspects – with five Palestinians shot and killed in response, writes Stephen Oryszczuk.
In contrast, Palestinian and Israeli Arab leaders have praised the knife attacks on Israelis.
The 16-year-old Jewish victim in Jerusalem was stabbed in his upper body and was lightly injured.
The attack occurred in the city of Dimona.
The United Nations human rights chief is calling for calm in the West Bank after a week of spiraling tension, warning that “more bloodshed will only lead to more hatred on both sides”.
Selfies are being posted of youthful stone throwers against a background of burning tyres or billowing tear gas. Zeid says “the high number of casualties, in particular those resulting from the use of live ammunition by Israeli security forces, raise concerns of excessive use of force”.
The situation in Gaza this Friday has taken an even more dramatic turn, when this morning a large group of young people were demonstrating in support of Jerusalem and against the occupation, near the border of the Strip, in Shishaia.
Abbas insisted the Palestinians are not interested in a further escalation.
“Our people will not put up with how the Jews humiliate us-our brothers, our sisters, and our mothers-at Al-Aqsa mosque”, Halabi wrote. In recent months, the site has experienced growing numbers of visits, including by Jewish nationalists who seek a greater presence at the compound, fueling Palestinian fears and rumors. While the city’s rate of violent crime remains low by global standards, the atmosphere is tense, and on Thursday, the Old City was teeming with police patrolling its narrow alleys.
The attacker reportedly carried out the attack in revenge for a series of Palestinian attacks this week.
Josh Hasten, a resident of Elazar and a freelance writer for The Jerusalem Post, told the newspaper that he was driving past Beit Sahour and was about 500 meters from an IDF checkpoint when he saw traffic slow to a crawl, and then “around 50 Arabs began running toward me with murder in their eyes”.
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A rash of attacks by individual Palestinians and one by an Israeli threatened to escalate and spread throughout the country Friday as police struggled to control spiraling tensions after days of violence.
