This month alone, more than 30 of the latter have been killed by Israeli security forces, while a few 1,700 have been hurt by Israeli gunfire, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
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Israeli actions were “threatening to spark a religios conflict that would burn everything”, said the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Netanyahu rejected this as a “new big lie” in his news conference on Thursday, hours after his government released video and photos showing the boy alive in an Israeli hospital. On Wednesday evening, an Israeli woman of about 70 was stabbed and moderately wounded as she waited to board a bus near Jerusalem’s busy central bus station. Palestinians also believe Israel has deliberately sabotaged the long-scuttled peace process in order to have a free hand to continue enlarging Jewish settlements in the West Bank and housing more Jews in east Jerusalem.
US Secretary of State John Kerry was reportedly planning to visit the region in hopes of stopping the violence and restarting a diplomatic dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli officials say he is now in stable condition in an Israeli hospital.
On Tuesday night, Israel’s security cabinet authorised police to close or surround “centres of friction and incitement” in Jerusalem.
Israeli paramilitary border police used their vehicles to block an exit at the edge of Jabel Mukabar, an East Jerusalem neighborhood and home to three Palestinians who carried out deadly attacks against Israelis on Tuesday.
Israel’s internal security minister is also calling for the bodies of Palestinian assailants to be buried without fanfare away from their families.
Israeli military affairs commentators questioned the value of the threatened lockdown, saying those determined to carry out attacks would still find ways to do so, while the strong-arm tactic could fuel more anger.
Police said Wednesday that 300 soldiers have already been deployed on the streets of East Jerusalem, where more a third of the city’s population lives, the Associated Press reported.
Palestinians, mostly young men, armed with knives, appear out of nowhere, stabbing as many as they can. Gold asked. “This phenomenon emanates from incitement and particularly religious incitement about the false accusation that Israel seeks to change the status quo on the Temple Mount”.
After a period of relative quiet, violence between the two communities has spiralled since clashes erupted at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site in mid-September.
Thirty Palestinians have died, including alleged attackers, a few of them teenagers.
“Israeli Cabinet decisions will not stop the uprising”.
Abbas stressed that the Palestinian people “have the right of self-defense through out the peaceful resistance as well as the legal and political struggle”, adding that “we won’t remain hostages to the deals that Israel doesn’t respect”.
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“In my opinion”, said Fr Raed “they can impose all the blocks they want, but this will not ensure safety”.
