The violence has prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bar Cabinet ministers and lawmakers from a sensitive Jerusalem holy site at the heart of the latest tensions.
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What began as Palestinians throwing rocks and firebombs at passing cars and police morphed into a deadly shooting and a rash of knife attacks in which Palestinians stabbed Israeli civilians and soldiers in the streets.
Israeli and Palestinian officials reportedly met for security talks in the West Bank on Tuesday evening, and there have been global calls for calm.
It remains yet to be seen, however, if the Israeli attacker’s house will be demolished, as is the practice with Palestinian attackers.
The Palestinian was shot in the chest and fatally wounded at the Shuafat refugee camp in annexed east Jerusalem, according to the Red Crescent and hospital sources.
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.
Many are asking if this violence could be a third intifada Palestinian uprising.
Near Hebron, an Israeli policeman was stabbed by a Palestinian who was then shot dead.
But spokesman John Kirby would not be drawn on whether an apparent revenge attack by a Jewish suspect that wounded two Palestinians and two Israeli Arabs was also terrorism.
Testimony given by Israeli security officials in the past confirms that undercover officers are often used by Israel’s armed forces when trying to infiltrate Palestinian protests.
Islamist movement Hamas rules Gaza, the Palestinian enclave squeezed between Egypt and Israel and separated from the West Bank.
This video captures the standoff between the woman with the knife and Israeli officers.
After his arrest, the man allegedly said he carried out the attacks in retaliation for the numerous Palestinian attacks, Israeli media reported. Netanyahu is facing questions about domestic security from Israeli hardliners, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ inability to quell the violence is costing him credibility.
But the attacks have spread beyond Jerusalem and the West Bank, the historical hot spots. The suspect was arrested and is being questioned.
In an interview with a local radio station, Beni Biton, the mayor of Dimona, said the man, who is now in police custody, was known to authorities.
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In Ramallah, hundreds attended the funeral of Muhannad Halabi, who was shot to death Saturday after killing two Jewish men in the Old City of Jerusalem. Anger has been brewing among Palestinians over Israeli restrictions on access to the site. But Palestinian expert Pinchas Inbari, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told CBN News it doesn’t matter what it’s called.
