A Palestinian man has been shot dead by Israeli police after he tried to stab an officer at an entrance to East Jerusalem’s Old City, according to an Israeli police spokesperson. The man then attacked an officer with a knife, but he was wearing a protective vest and was not injured, she said.
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In a separate incident, a Palestinian wielding a knife killed two Israeli men and wounded a mother and toddler in Jerusalem before being shot dead.
Paramilitary border police officers noticed the Palestinian acting suspiciously and ordered him to take his hand out of his pocket, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
The police officer was unharmed in the clash, Samri said.
Last month, Israeli forces shot and killed an 18-year-old woman they accused of attempting to stab an officer in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron).
Israeli police say they have set up a concrete barrier between a Jewish and an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem amid soaring tensions. The female soldier, with stab wounds in the head and upper torso, remains in critical condition; the other three victims sustained moderate wounds.
Medics said dozens of Palestinians were also shot and wounded in other clashes across the West Bank.
The exchange of fire suggested the Israeli-Palestinian tensions were spreading beyond Jerusalem and the West Bank.
One revenge stabbing has occurred, with a 17-year-old Jew in the southern Israeli city of Dimona wounding two Palestinians and two Arab Israelis on Friday.
There have been warnings of the risk of a full-scale Palestinian uprising, or third intifada.
Jerusalem’s teeming Old City, in particular, has seen a significant increase in the presence of security forces, with troops stationed on rooftops and at numerous checkpoints throughout the city, especially near the homes of Israeli settlers.
On Sunday, Israeli forces conducted an airstrike in Gaza in response to two rockets fired by Hamas at Israel.
Four Israelis and 24 Palestinians, including eight children, have died in 12 days of bloodshed, fueled in part by Muslim anger over increasing Jewish access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem and with Palestinians attacking Israelis with knives, rocks and, in at least one incident, guns.
On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet approved a four-year minimum prison term for those convicted of throwing stones at moving vehicles. Police said the suspect in the attack was an Arab citizen of Israel. Both Palestinian assailants were killed.
Both Netanyahu and Abbas have been unable to contain the violence, and both men have been constrained by outside pressures.
“We are in the midst of a wave of terrorism originating from systematic and mendacious incitement regarding the Temple Mount – incitement by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Movement in Israel”, Netanyahu said.
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Palestinians have repeatedly clashed with Israeli security forces at the site in recent weeks, prompting Israel to restrict access to the site.
