Israel has struggled to curb a spate of violence that has raised fears of a full-blown uprising, with more knife attacks shaking Jerusalem despite moves to set up checkpoints in Palestinian neighbourhoods and mobilise hundreds of soldiers. A reporter for Palestine TV said a cameraman working for the channel was shot in the leg during the protest.
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Television footage showed the assailant clad in military-style camouflage clothing, running with a knife in his hand.
The unrest, the most serious in years, has been triggered in part by Palestinians’ anger over what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, which contains sites holy to Jews and to Muslims.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.
A day earlier, Netanyahu appeared to take a swipe at the Obama administration and others who have urged both sides to stop the violence in Israel – saying the country’s “friends” should not “draw false symmetry” between Israeli victims and Palestinian attackers.
A Palestinian posing as a photo-journalist, wearing a safety vest and carrying equipment, stabbed an Israeli soldier.
Eight Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the last month, the majority of them as a result of stabbings.
USA secretary of state John Kerry also warned the Palestinian leader not to incite violence.
Israel on Thursday condemned remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which he blamed Israel for the escalation in violence between Israelis and Palestinians in recent weeks.
Secretary of State John Kerry expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself amid a renewed wave of terror attacks, but omitted any mention of Palestinians being behind the violence.
The incident occurred as Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian stone-throwers following Friday prayers in the West Bank city of Hebron. “All the lies that are said about us trying to bring down the mosque or change the status quo, they cite that as the reason for their activity”.
The American State Department said the two discussed plans to meet during a phone call Friday as Kerry flew from Washington to Milan on an unrelated trip.
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Those killings followed repeated clashes at east Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound in September between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths.
