The attack came after an Israeli civilian in the West Bank city of Hebron reportedly shot a Palestinian who had attempted to stab him, Israeli security officials said.
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Reporting from Jerusalem, NPR’s Emily Harris tells Weekend Edition that three more Palestinians were killed after Israeli Police say they tried to stab Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The stabbing of an Israeli soldier by a Palestinian attacker posing as a journalist has heightened safety concerns among those covering the daily Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Palestinians set fire to a Jewish shrine in the West Bank on Friday as the Islamist group Hamas called for a day of rage against Israel.
In east Jerusalem, a Palestinian tried to stab a soldier at a checkpoint in East Talpiot but was shot dead by other soldiers.
Clashes erupted across the West Bank on Friday, including in biblical Bethlehem where dozens of Palestinians hurled stones and firebombs at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas, rubber-coated steel pellets and live rounds.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army is investigating the Palestinian claims that three demonstrators died on Friday.
On Friday, Israel rejected Palestinian calls for an global protection force to be deployed to quell the violence around Al Aqsa.
Abbas has been under pressure over recent comments that a few have labelled incitement and has called for peaceful protests without explicitly condemning the violence.
Israel has taken unprecedented steps in response to the attacks.
A second soldier shot and critically wounded the Palestinian attacker.
The 15-member council met in an emergency session to discuss weeks of escalating violence between Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem and the territories.
The area is where two Palestinian men boarded a bus earlier in the week and allegedly began shooting and stabbing passengers, killing two Israelis and bringing the toll of Israelis killed since the beginning of October to seven.
In the past month eight Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings and 33 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 15 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops.
Joseph’s Tomb, inside a compound in the Palestinian refugee camp of Balata in Nablus, has been the scene of recurring violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Paramedics of the Palestinian Red Crescent arrived but Israeli soldiers didn’t allow them to access the young man. The soldiers then covered the young man’s face then took him in an ambulance to unknown destination, Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.
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Opening the meeting, UN Assistant Secretary-General Taye-Brook Zerihoun welcomed repeated assurances by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the status quo at the flashpoint holy compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount and Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, would not change.
