Israeli authorities on Thursday announced the arrests of several suspected Jewish extremists with possible connections to an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his two parents in July.
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Meanwhile, Israel Radio reported that the two Palestinian young men stabbed with a knife an Israeli soldier at one of the road barriers in the city and the latter was wounded, before they were shot by other soldiers.
The army did not give details of the Israeli’s injuries but the country’s rescue service said he was in “moderate to severe” condition.
Hours earlier, a Palestinian stabbed a soldier in the neck during a security inspection near the city of Ramallah in the West Bank, the military said. “In response to the threat, forces fired at the attackers, resulting in their death”.
Eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was killed in the July 31 blaze in Duma, a village outside Nablus.
In the wake of the Dumas arson, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon secured permission to hold Israeli suspects in “administrative detention”, a tactic that has been nearly exclusively employed against Palestinians, who can be held for months without charge. He said the campaign would focus on Israel’s mild weather, its religious and historical sites as well as beaches and night life, and the large number of Russian-speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
At least 102 Palestinians have been killed, including 67 said by Israel to be attackers.
Later Friday afternoon, an Israeli girl was lightly wounded when the auto she was traveling in was pelted by rocks thrown by Palestinian near Neve Tsuf, a settlement north of Ramallah in the West Bank. The rest died in clashes with Israeli security forces.
The attack was the second of the day, and the latest in a wave of Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians and security forces.
Most of the violence has been in the occupied West Bank but there have been semi-regular protests in the Gaza Strip.
Since mid-September, 19 people have been killed on the Israeli side from Palestinian stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks.
“Amidst the current escalation of violence, it is essential that all firmly and consistently reject terrorism and act decisively to stop hatred and incitement”, the United Nations official, Nickolay Mladenov, said.
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Unusually, two Palestinians were wounded by tank fire after entering the no-go zone close to the border fence east of the city of Khan Yunes.
