Palestinians carried out two stabbing attacks in Jerusalem on Saturday before being shot dead by police, while another two Palestinian youths were killed near the Gaza border fence, as a weeklong bout of violence showed no signs of slowing.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke separately Saturday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas, expressing concerns over the recent wave of violence and offering assistance in restoring calm, the State Department said. “There was no apparent threat to Israeli soldiers or anybody else frankly”, Sari Bashi, the Israel-Palestine Director of HRW, told Al Jazeera.
The attacker was killed when police opened fire. The two stabbing victims were slightly wounded. The Israeli police said protesters threw stones at the police officers and burnt tires. Israeli officials said both Palestinians responsible were shot dead.
A military statement added that scores of Palestinians had managed to breach the fence and enter Israeli territory before being pushed back by the soldiers. The military said five were detained for questioning.
Border clashes that broke out Friday came as Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, called the overall violence an intifada and urged further unrest.
It was unclear whether Hamas or another group fired the rockets on Saturday night. It was the second rocket attack in 24 hours.
In Jerusalem, police officers and two Orthodox Jewish men were the latest wounded in stabbing attacks on Saturday.
Lt. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, said the bomber also was injured and had been taken to the hospital. Health officials later confirmed the man had died of his wounds.
Rioting has seen Palestinians throwing stones and firebombs at Israeli forces, who have responded with live fire, rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades. The strikes, which took place early Sunday morning, bring the number of Palestinians killed by Israel since the start of the month to 22. Several other people were injured in attacks in northern and southern Israel.
An Israeli police spokesman said “a group of terrorists” from the camp attacked an Israeli checkpoint with gunfire, explosive devices, Molotov cocktails and rocks and that Israeli forces fired back.
The amount of extra guards of the paramilitary unit could reach up to 1,300 to 2,000 more, the Times of Israel website reported. There have also been multiple protests inside Israel from the country’s own Arab population, with masked demonstrators clashing with police forces.
Against a backdrop of protests over Jewish visits to the Al Aqsa plaza, Palestinians have been attacking Israelis with knives, rocks and, on at least one occasion, guns.
Palestinians carried out two stabbing attacks in Jerusalem on Saturday before being shot dead by police, the latest…
Thursday, Palestinians with knives attacked Israelis in Hebron and Jerusalem and stabbed a female Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv, all separate incidents involving different assailants. Tensions have surged in 11 days of violence in which four Israelis and 17 Palestinians have been killed.
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She is an incompetent, who does not know that an elementary rule in journalism is to interview both sides, instead of working as the stenographer for one of them.
