“Everybody is afraid”, said Mr. Mizrahi, as he sold a customer a Glock 9x19mm pistol for 4,200 shekels ($1,095). Later, police said a Palestinian woman stabbed a female officer at a border police base in Hebron and lightly injured her before the officer shot her dead.
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Israeli Palestinian violence continues as on Sunday evening one Israeli soldier and a Palestinian attacker died in a terrorist attack in Southern Israel. At night, the army said a soldier was stabbed and moderately wounded before the attacker was shot. They later told Israeli police Palestinians attacked them, accusing Palestinian security forces of participating in the fight.
Several people were also injured after Israeli soldiers attacked a group of Palestinian protesters at the Qalandiya checkpoint.
When the Jews arrived, they were confronted by Palestinians and a violent clash ensued. Palestinian factions, including Abbas’ Fatah and its rival, the Islamic militant Hamas, have mainly been involved in organizing stone-throwing protests in the West Bank and on the Israel-Gaza border.
Israel says it is keeping the status quo at the holy compound, which is also revered by Jews as the location of two destroyed biblical Jewish temples. The others were Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Checkpoints have been set up in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem, where numerous attackers have come from, and a few 300 soldiers yesterday began reinforcing police.
Police said the wall, about 10 metres in length, was placed temporarily at a flashpoint of the recent flare-up of violence in the city and was meant to stop petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown at the Jewish apartments.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week in Europe to discuss easing Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
The group of about 30 religious students from Jerusalem had travelled to Joseph’s Tomb in the northern city of Nablus despite not having the required authorisation from Israel’s military.
Fears over another uprising are growing after a wave of stabbings and gun attacks swept across Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank since early October.
Also Sunday, the Israeli military removed dozens of Jewish worshippers who clashed with Palestinians during an unauthorized visit to a Jewish shrine in the West Bank that was recently torched by Palestinians.
The site is located in an area under Palestinian self-rule and visits by Jews are coordinated between Palestinian security forces and Israeli troops.
They have resulted in Israelis now arming themselves with any weapon they can, as the attacks are so hard to predict and police. Thirty-four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 17 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops, according to the latest count by the Associated Press.
He added that he did not expect any changes in the status quo at the holy site.
The violence comes at a time when a possible partition of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean into two states – Palestine alongside Israel – is fading.
Jordanians held demonstrations around the Kingdom on Friday in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and to express support for Al Aqsa Mosque.
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Hardline Jewish activists have begun demanding greater access to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, in Jerusalem’s Old City, and right-wing politicians have called for the rights of Jews to pray there. We are the only ones doing so and we will keep doing it in a responsible and serious manner.
