After the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares that “we are in a midst of a wave of terror”.
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Frustrated Palestinian youths have defied president Mahmud Abbas as well as an Israeli crackdown by staging violent protests in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, while 18 stabbings have targeted Jews since October 3.
A few have suggested the violence represents the start of the third intifada, or uprising, by Palestinians.
“We are in the midst of a wave of terrorism originating from systematic and mendacious incitement regarding the Temple Mount – incitement by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Movement in Israel”, Netanyahu said.
Early yesterday, a Palestinian was shot dead after he attempted to stab an Israeli security officer near the Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The two victims, 62 and 65, were lightly injured, and police killed the attacker after he allegedly ran toward officers with the knife, authorities said.
Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinians as a series of alleged stabbing attacks continued in Jerusalem on Monday.
Israeli security forces fatally shot a Palestinian teenager and seriously injured another near Jerusalem on Monday afternoon, claiming they stabbed two Israeli settlers. Other officers shot the attacker dead, police said.
“The IDF will not tolerate fire by terror groups onto the State of Israel’s territory and will continue to act stringently against every attempt to disturb the quiet on the southern communities”, the IDF Spokesman said Sunday.
October 1: An Israeli couple is shot dead in the West Bank.
Hundreds of other Palestinians were wounded in the clashes in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, the Red Crescent said.
In the West Bank, central Hebron burned with thick smoke from flaming tires as young Palestinian men clashed with Israeli police and soldiers.
On Monday evening, dozens of Gazans broke through the border fence and briefly entered Israel before being pushed back by troops, Palestinian witnesses said.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the violence is that nobody is co-ordinating it. The past two Palestinian uprisings, the first intifada that began in the late 1980s involving mostly stone-throwing, and the second one of the 2000s with guns and suicide bombs, were directed by political factions. A pregnant Palestinian woman and her two-year-old child were killed in the attack, Palestinian media reported.
He was killed on Sunday during clashes in Ramallah. He was the 25th Palestinian to be killed, the Palestinian health ministry said, during the current round of violence.
“Indiscriminate or deliberate firing on observers and demonstrators who pose no imminent threat violates the global standards to which the Israeli security forces are bound”, the watchdog’s Executive Director Kenneth Roth said.
A few 200 Palestinians demonstrated in the Shujaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, across from Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary general Saeb Erekat lashed out at Netanyahu, saying “executions” and harassment from Jewish settlers had exacerbated the violence.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian Liberation Organization official, accused Israel on Sunday of inciting violence against Palestinians, citing recent calls by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat for all Jewish Israelis to carry licensed firearms.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has introduced tougher measures to calm the situation.
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Israeli-Palestinian tensions have been escalating recently.
