The attack was the third stabbing against Israelis on Thursday, part a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in recent weeks. An Israeli television crew with an Arab journalist was assaulted late Thursday in Afula while covering the heated aftermath of a stabbing attack.
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Israeli police officers patrol near the site of a stabbing attack in Afula, northern Israel, Thursday, October 8, 2015.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and warned that those using violence and breaking the law “from whatever side” would be dealt with severely. The insurgence, though, was not approved by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Britain’s The Guardian reported Friday.
Veteran commentator Ben Caspit told Channel 10 that Israel is on the “seam line” between the violence spreading and containment.
Militant Palestinian organization Hamas had previously declared Friday a “day of rage” – or intifada – in response to days of attacks in the region.
The 16-year-old Jewish victim in Jerusalem was stabbed in his upper body and was lightly injured.
Israeli forces responded with live fire towards the “main instigators”, she said, confirming five direct hits.
Video footage of the incident surfaced online, showing the woman surrounded by several members of the security forces, pointing their weapons at her and yelling.
Lerner said Hamas police stood by and watched.
“Now is the time for a government of national unity”, the Israeli prime minister said, and he called on the opposition in parliament, led by the Labor Party’s Isaac Herzog, to form a coalition. An Israeli policeman was lightly wounded when his attacker tried to snatch his service weapon, but the terrorist was killed before he could succeed.
The United Nations considers Gaza to be occupied by Israel. Non-Muslim visitors are only allowed to enter the site at specific hours and are banned by police from praying there.
The unrest is largely linked to Muslim agitation over Jewish access to a contested holy site in Jerusalem. Israel has promised to ensure the delicate arrangement at the site and insists it will not allow the status quo there to be changed.
Netanyahu has barred all Cabinet ministers and lawmakers from visiting a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City in an effort to calm the tensions. The compound is the third-holiest site in Islam and the most sacred to Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.
What began as Palestinians throwing rocks and firebombs at passing cars and police morphed into a deadly shooting and a rash of knife attacks where Palestinians stabbed Israeli civilians and soldiers in the streets.
Abbas told Israelis that Palestinians will maintain their hands extended in peace despite their hardships with Israel, adding that if peace is achieved in Palestine, it would involve “the world”.
In the southern desert city of Dimona, a Jewish Israeli, alleged to suffer from mental illness, stabbed four Arabs, two seriously, in what police labeled a nationalistically motivated attack. The attacker, who has a history of drug-related arrests, was apprehended. Police say the attacker-a resident of eastern Jerusalem-was arrested and is being questioned by police. In Netanya, a young Israeli Arab was beaten by a few Jews who shouted “death to Arabs”.
It was mostly quiet Friday at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
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After a right-wing outcry, Netanyahu’s office clarified that the ban on politicians’ visits to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s walled Old City would also include Arab parliamentarians.
