Palestinian witnesses said the violence was triggered by protesters who were angry over escalating tensions and the death of four Palestinians who killed or attacked Israelis in the past several days.
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Israel said its troops fired over the Gaza border after “a thousand rioters infiltrated the buffer zone”, throwing “grenades, rocks and rolled burning tyres at soldiers”.
Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian militant group which controls the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that the Shuafat shooter was one of its members.
He described the recent surge in violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank as an uprising, or “Intifada”.
In the latest developments, a rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israel early on Saturday, causing no damages or injuries.
Earlier in the day, a Palestinian woman was shot and seriously wounded after she tried to stab a Jewish passerby in Jerusalem’s old city.
Testimony given by Israeli security officials in the past confirms that undercover officers are often used by Israel’s armed forces when trying to infiltrate Palestinian protests.
There were more stabbing attacks on Israelis, with a first reported assault by an Israeli Arab. Police said the woman pulled out a knife and attempted to stab a soldier in the northern city of Afula before she was shot and wounded.
Netanyahu made the controversial decision in order to quell Muslims’ fears that Israel was preparing to assert sovereignty over part or all of the Mount, the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, and the long-destroyed Jewish Biblical Temples.
Saeb Erakat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of “committing a new massacre of Palestinians” in Gaza.
Israeli settlers throw stones at Palestinian houses (not seen) in the West Bank city of Hebron, October 9, 2015.
On the other hand, Jerusalem Post reported that on Friday morning, a Jewish nationalists attacked four Arabs, with knifes in two separate incidents.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza – lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, for a future state.
Two Israelis were lightly injured and one Palestinian killed in stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.
But Israeli military officials have noted that security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, is continuing.
A spate of “lone-wolf” stabbings, unrest & clashes in Israel & the West Bank have left least 10 lifeless & 1,300 wounded in a single week.
In Jerusalem, a Palestinian wielding a vegetable peeler stabbed and wounded a 14-year-old Israeli on Friday before being arrested.
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He said he is committed to “peaceful popular resistance”, but reiterated his support for “those who are protecting Al-Aqsa mosque”.
