In northern Israel, a 29-year-old Arab-Israeli woman was shot and wounded while trying to stab people at a bus station in the town of Afula, where another stabbing had taken place the day before, police said. Palestinians threw rocks and rolled burning tires at Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and soldiers opened fire of protestors on the border of the Gaza Strip. They have since spread to the rest on the country.
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However, during Friday prayers Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas in Gaza, declared the recent violence to be a new “intifada” (uprising), saying it was a justified response to the Israeli occupation and “crimes against Al Aqsa”.
Sixteen Palestinians have been killed, including a number who were shot dead by police as presumed perpetrators of attacks against Israelis.
The recent surge in violence has been building momentum for more than a week, resulting in a mass deployment of Israeli forces at flashpoints across Israel and the occupied West Bank. The youths had no known links to armed groups who have targeted Israeli soldiers and civilians at random, complicating security efforts.
On Friday morning In Jerusalem, a Palestinian used a vegetable peeler to stab a 14-year-old Israeli boy in Jerusalem, leaving him with minor injuries. The police officer was lightly wounded, Samri said.
Netanyahu again blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for incitement but suggested that the two could work together to ease tensions.
The violence has been fuelled by Palestinian fears that visits by Jewish groups, including lawmakers, to the Jerusalem Old City plaza revered in Judaism as the site of two destroyed biblical temples are eroding Muslim religious control of the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest shrine.
Lerner said Hamas police stood by and watched. Israel has adamantly denied the allegations and accused Palestinian leaders of inciting the violence and spreading lies over the shrines in east Jerusalem.
Dimona’s mayor Beni Bitton said the attacker was “mentally ill” and told Channel 10 TV that bystanders had rushed to help the wounded.
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Since last weekend, gun and knife attacks by Palestinians have left four Israelis dead and many wounded, while at least three Palestinians have been killed during clashes with security forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In a separate incident, Palestinians killed two Israeli men and wounded a mother and toddler in Jerusalem.
