The separate attacks are the latest in an escalation of Palestinian terrorist violence against Israelis, including rock throwing, stabbings and shootings. The hilltop compound is revered by Muslims as the spot where Muhammad ascended to heaven and by Jews as the site of the two Jewish biblical Temples.
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In broadcast remarks, Netanyahu said the new measures would include speeding up the razing of homes of Palestinian attackers and banning those who incite violence from Jerusalem’s Old City. The Jewish New Year is often a tense period in Jerusalem, as it brings an increase in visits by Jews to the Temple Mount.
On Thursday, an Israeli couple were shot and killed in the West Bank in front of their four children, officials said.
There have been fears that the sporadic violence could spin out of control, with a few warning of the risk of a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Over the past three days, several violent clashes have erupted between Palestinian youths and Israeli troops in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Police also named him as Mohannad Shafiq Halani, aged 19, from a village near Ramallah in the West Bank.
Ambulances operated by the organisation were attacked by Israeli soldiers on Friday and Sunday, and five of its paramedics have been assaulted by troops, the PRCS said in a statement released on its website on Sunday.
As part of security measures following the recent attacks, Jerusalem’s Old City remained closed to Palestinians for a second straight day.
Netanyahu said Sunday that he would take “additional steps to deter terror and punish terrorists” but did not elaborate.
“We are allowing our forces to take strong action against those who throw rocks and firebombs”, Netanyahu said just before an emergency security cabinet meeting Monday.
On Saturday, another Palestinian stabbed to death an off-duty Israeli soldier walking with his wife and children and a rabbi who rushed to their aid, on a street near Judaism’s Western Wall, police said.
Commenting on the teenagers’ deaths NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it was a “red flag for the Israeli army to revise its rules of engagement to comply with global law”.
A Palestinian hospital official says a 13-year-old boy was killed during clashes with the Israeli military in the West Bank. Many Palestinians believe that Israel is trying to expand a Jewish presence at the site, a claim Netanyahu has denied. According to Al Jazeera, Mohammad Jaabis was shot dead by Israeli forces when he rammed a bulldozer into a bus, killing one Israeli and injuring many others.
The Israeli military said it was checking the report.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met his security chiefs late Monday after accusing Israel of escalating tensions, as European nations and the US appealed for calm.
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Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, called for peace, stressing that Israel was “taking advantage of violence to attack innocent Palestinians and to drag the entire region into violence,” Arutz Sheva reported on Monday.
