Israel’s prime minister says he is calling off a planned trip to Germany because of a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
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Netanyahu has threatened a tough response to the violence, and Israel has beefed up security in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Both were taken to a hospital. The suspect’s identity was not yet clear but that police were treating the incident as a terrorist attack. He said the attacker was an Arab without providing more details. Earlier, a Palestinian stabbed four Israelis with a screwdriver in Tel Aviv.
“I thought they were all going to kill me”, she said.
On Wednesday, a female Palestinian stabbed and wounded two Israelis near the Lions’ Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said forces were searching the area near the Jewish West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba for the attacker. In Wednesday’s violence, stabbings occurred outside a crowded mall in central Israel, in a southern Israeli town and in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Mordechai also addressed extremist Jews’ attacks on Palestinians, saying the Israeli government would not permit violent attacks by any side.
One of the Palestinians was hit in the back of the head.
On Tuesday Israel demolished homes that belonged to the families of a man who killed four worshippers and a police officer in a Jerusalem synagogue past year, and a second attacker who killed one person when he rammed a bulldozer into traffic.
With the attacks spilling into the Israeli heartland, Netanyahu warned Israelis to be on guard. He said the decision was “unfathomable” and that he would take the issue up directly with Netanyahu.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been hurt in several days of clashes, according to the Red Crescent medical service, including dozens struck by rubber bullets and a few by live fire. 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”.
Abbas spoke to business leaders on Thursday in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
He insisted the Palestinians are not interested in a further escalation but that his “hands are with those who are protecting Al-Aqsa mosque”. Palestinians have repeatedly barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque there, and hurled stones, firebombs and fireworks at the police.
Jerusalem has seen several stabbing and shooting attacks in the past week.
The unrest began three weeks ago and has spread from the confines of a sensitive Jerusalem holy site to spots across Israel and the West Bank.
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Barkat, the Jerusalem mayor, defended his decision to carry a rifle while visiting an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem on Monday night.
