Palestinian medics say three Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in clashes between stone-throwers and troops in several West Bank towns. In that time, 33 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces, 15 of them labelled attackers. “Every martyr will be in heaven and every wounded person will be rewarded by Allah’s will”, Abbas said in September, prior to the current onslaught of Palestinian attacks against innocent Israeli Jews.
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The United Nations Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting later on Friday to discuss the rising level of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
The association said 70 journalists have suffered injuries this month, including by rubber-coated steel pellets and by tear gas.
Earlier, Israeli police said they discovered and defused a bomb planted in Jerusalem next to one of the many checkpoints set up around the city to limit the movements of Palestinian residents from East Jerusalem.
Jews consider the site in Nablus the final resting place of Joseph, a high Israelite patriarch and son of Jacob who, according to biblical accounts, was sold into slavery as a boy but then rose to become a powerful figure in ancient Egypt, second only to the pharaoh.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF spokesman to the foreign media, told WND in a statement: “The burning and desecration of Joseph’s tomb last night is a blatant violation and contradiction of the basic value of freedom of worship”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday reiterated his willingness to meet Abbas, while accusing him of inciting and encouraging violence.
It said the Palestinian attacker was shot dead in the incident in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron.
“If the terrorist attacks continue, we will begin deporting the families of terrorists to the Gaza Strip”, Channel 10 TV quoted a senior Israeli defense official as saying on Friday.
Within less than an hour of the Israeli retreat, Palestinian rioters overtook Joseph’s Tomb and began to ransack the site. Palestinian forces dispersed alleged Palestinian arsonists and put out the fire.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state, together with Gaza and the West Bank.
Palestinian hurl rocks towards Israeli soldiers during clashes in Hebron this week. Tensions and violence have been mounting in recent weeks, in part fueled by Palestinian fears that Israel is trying to expand its presence at a major Muslim-run shrine in Jerusalem, a claim Israel has denied.
What’s behind the latest unrest? Many historians support that account and estimate that the site was also sacred ground for Samaritans, a Jewish splinter sect. Israel repeatedly dismissed the rumours as incitement.
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The footage shows the man approaching a group of soldiers and stabbing one before being shot and killed. Israeli authorities have also fired during Palestinian protests that have turned riotous.
