With those concerns still acute after yesterday’s incidents, aides to Benjamin Netanyahu said the prime minister had cancelled a trip to Germany, Israel’s most important European ally, scheduled for today. Another Palestinian was wounded when he was shot by police after he attempted to run over an officer at a West Bank checkpoint, police said.
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And a Jewish man was attacked with a knife outside a shopping centre in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, police said, adding that the attacker had been overpowered.
Across the Jerusalem area, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported 399 Palestinians were injured in incidents Wednesday.
Hoping to head off the violence and potential knock-on attacks by ultra-nationalist Israelis, Netanyahu has beefed up the military presence in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Israel Radio reported that in a bid to ease tensions, a few days ago, Netanyahu instructed his ministers and governing lawmakers to temporarily refrain from visiting the volatile mosque compound, which Jews refer to as Temple Mount.
Over the last week, four Israelis and seven Palestinians have been killed in the violence. The compound has become a flashpoint for violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in recent weeks. The assailant was arrested at the scene, police said.
An Arab armed with a screwdriver stabbed four Israelis on Thursday before he was shot dead.
“As of now there are four stabbings”, spokeswoman Luba Samri said, adding that the motive appeared to be “nationalistic”. Arab lawmakers have vowed to attend Friday prayers at the disputed site, a move that could further raise soaring tensions in Jerusalem.
The toll does not include Thursday’s attacker in Tel Aviv as it was not yet confirmed whether he was Palestinian.
The violence follows a series of recent knife and gun attacks on Israelis, many of them concentrated in Jerusalem, the city that both sides claim as their capital.
The police said that the victim of Thursday’s attack was a 25-year-old Jewish man who was in a serious condition after being stabbed in the neck near one of Jerusalem’s main thoroughfares. Israeli security forces are still looking for that attacker.
The settler accused the girl of attempted stabbing, but eyewitnesses confirmed that the girl had no intentions of attacking the settler. They have been demanding harsh crackdowns on Palestinians and expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank. He said the decision was “unfathomable” and that he would take the issue up directly with Netanyahu.
However, Israeli Arab MP Ahmed Tibi called the ban “senseless and illegal”, saying that “neither Netanyahu nor the right will be able to stop us from entering our Al Aqsa mosque”.
A Palestinian was also shot dead by Israeli security forces when clashes broke out in east Jerusalem as security forces went to search the home of one of the alleged attackers.
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She spoke after a peaceful protest in which she and about 20 other young Jerusalem Palestinian women sang nationalist songs as they sat on the steps opposite the gate.
