Shortly before Biden and Netanyahu met in Jerusalem, two Palestinian gunmen carried out shootings in the city before police shot and killed them, Israeli police said.
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Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said Fouad Abu Rajab’s father and siblings were living illegally in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiyeh while attempting to gain Jerusalem residency through the family reunification procedure.
Biden held talks with Abbas later on Wednesday in the West Bank town of Ramallah but they made no comments to reporters after the meeting.
In Tuesday’s attack, the Palestinian assailant ran through the ancient port city of Jaffa with a knife, stabbing several people along his way, until he was shot by a police officer.
Force’s killing was the third attack to take place on Tuesday.
A spokesperson said the Palestinian attacker had stabbed the Israelis while running along a path near the port.
The last peace negotiations, mediated by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, collapsed in April 2014, and the period since has been fraught with conflict.
An Israeli police photo of the weapon showed a large, bloody kitchen knife.
On Wednesday, two young Palestinians, aged 19 and 21, shot at a bus from their vehicle in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of northern Jerusalem, police said.
“Let me say in no uncertain terms, the United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts”, Mr Biden said, with Mr Netanyahu at his side, in remarks that appeared critical of Palestinian leaders. Three Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces. Israeli forces have killed nearly 180 Palestinians.
In the lead-up to a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Vice President Joe Biden took a swipe at Palestinian officials Wednesday over the fatal stabbing of an American student, saying the USA condemns those who fail to denounce such violent acts.
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A two-state solution long seen as the most internationally acceptable outcome envisages a Palestinian state on most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel captured in a 1967 war, and an Israeli state that absorbs some of the settlements Israel built on occupied land in return for mutually agreed land swaps. Israel says they are being incited to violence by their leaders and on social media.
