Israeli police say a Palestinian assailant stabbed two police officers near Jerusalem’s Old City before troops shot and wounded him.
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In a separate incident, two Israeli officers were stabbed in Jerusalem.
Monday’s incident was the sixth alleged Palestinian attack since Friday, when three Palestinians and a Jordanian national were killed while allegedly attempting to attack Israeli targets in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
One victim, a 38-year-old female, was in intensive care after suffering stab wounds to her neck.
The Jerusalem attack occurred outside Herod’s Gate, near a bustling commercial avenue of east Jerusalem. He was shot by the policeman he stabbed, a statement said. The second officer, a man, shot and wounded the assailant.
Palestinian shops along the same street were ordered closed by police after the attack, shopowners said.
The latest alleged attacks represent a renewal of violence after a months-long wave of Israeli-Palestinian bloodletting appeared to subside in March. Over 200 Palestinians have also been killed in the past year, with the Israeli army and police saying that most of those killed were attackers or involved in clashes with security forces.
“The response [to Palestinian stabbing and car-ramming attacks] must not be of the kind – and this is what I say in other situations where the response is such that it results in extrajudicial executions or is disproportionate in that the number of people killed on that side exceeds the original number of deaths many times over”, Wallstrom said.
Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with the Israeli occupation and settlement-building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have helped feed the unrest.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the potential for violence could rise at the Jewish high holidays approach. The Palestinians say it is rooted in almost 50 years of military occupation and dwindling hopes for independence. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is visiting NY this week as well, where he is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and to address the General Assembly.
