Also on Sunday morning, Israeli security forces claimed that they foiled an attack when an explosion seriously wounded a Palestinian woman and lightly injured an Israeli policeman. Another officer, Moshe Chen, was wounded on Sunday after a vehicle being driven by a Palestinian woman was pulled over at a checkpoint near the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the violence on incitement by groups including the Islamic Movement, which runs religious and educational services for Arab citizens of Israel. The Israeli military said it held Hamas responsible for any attacks from Gaza.
The woman and her child were killed when their house, which was near to the facility, collapsed, according to Palestinian medical officials.
Palestinian kicks a tear gas canister during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank, Saturday, October 10, 2015.
A few Israeli Arabs have also actively supported the protests, mainly by demonstrating in major Israeli-Arab population centres, and a general commercial strike in the Arab sector has been called for Tuesday.
Although the Palestinians have largely refrained from using weapons in the current confrontation, gunmen from Ramallah did open fire at an Israeli command post near the Palestinian city three days ago. Border police responded by shooting and killing the Palestinian, she said without providing details on his identity.
At least half of the victims were shot dead while during knife attacks against Israelis.
“This man chose to ram, stab and murder people”, a police prosecutor said at Ziwad’s remand hearing Monday.
Mr Netanyahu quoted Ms Zoabi as saying to a Hamas newspaper that “hundreds of thousands of worshippers should go to the Al-Aksa Mosque to stand up against Israel’s conspiracy to condone violence against east Jerusalem residents”.
Can Israel and the Palestinians contain spiralling violence?
Nearly a year ago, when Israel temporarily closed the site for the first time in a more than a decade, Palestinians became enraged, and a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called it a “declaration of war”. The Palestinian man stabbed two Israeli police officers, one in the neck, and encountered gunfire from other officers who arrived on scene.
A pregnant woman and her young daughter have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza while a 13-year-old boy was shot dead in clashes in the West Bank as a wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories fuelled fears of a wider escalation.
Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem – which includes the Old City – as their capital.
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Palestinian frustration has mounted with efforts towards statehood at a standstill and Israel’s occupation continuing, and a recent poll showed that a majority of favour a return to armed uprising in the absence of peace talks.
