Israeli-Palestinian violence: Police respond to more stabbings in Jerusalem
Palestinian shot dead, a 2nd arrested after latest attacks
A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli police officer in Jerusalem on Sunday before being shot dead by security forces, and another Palestinian stabbed a woman in the back as she was waiting for a bus, police said, as a two-month wave of violence showed no sign of relenting.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said a 38-year-old Palestinian walked past two officers near a gate into the Old City and then yelled "God is greatest" before stabbing one of them in the neck, moderately wounding him. Other officers opened fire at the attacker and shot him dead. Another knife was later found on his body.
Hours later, a Palestinian stabbed a woman in the back as she was waiting at a Jerusalem bus stop before escaping, Samri said. The woman, a foreign national, was taken to hospital and police fanned out across the city in search of the attacker — later reported as a teenager who was found in a nearby construction site.
The Haaretz news website said the woman who was attacked is a 31-year-old foreign worker from Nepal.
A 17-year-old Palestinian youth, Ayman Al-Abbassi, was killed on Sunday night in a clash in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian health ministry reported.
An Israeli police spokeswoman said about 10 petrol bombs had been hurled at officers. They opened fire but could not confirm if they had hit anyone.
Most violence in Hebron
The violence erupted in mid-September over tensions at a Jerusalem holy site. Since then, 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings and shootings. At least 97 Palestinians have been killed, including 62 said by Israel to be attackers. The others died in clashes with Israeli forces.
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At his weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the violence was driven by "opposition to the existence of the state of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, in any borders whatsoever."
"Added to this opposition is an element of radical Islam that strikes worldwide — in Paris, in London, in Madrid, in Mali — where there are of course no settlements," he added.
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Much of the recent violence has emanated from Hebron, the largest West Bank city, where hundreds of Israeli settlers live in heavily guarded enclaves surrounded by tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The Israeli military raided a Palestinian radio station in Hebron on Sunday and confiscated equipment it said was being used to broadcast calls to attack Israelis. The military said it shut down the "Dream" radio station overnight, marking the third time Israel has closed a Hebron station it accuses of inciting violence.
The military said the station "repeatedly broadcast content that promotes and encourages terror and acts of violence" against Israelis.
The station owner, Talab al-Jabar, told Reuters that the broadcaster was not inciting but simply reporting on events.
"I can tell you that Dream radio will be back on air very soon and it will be stronger," he said.
Israel has already announced it will fortify an existing fence west of Hebron as a security measure.
Palestinian allegations that Israel is trying to alter the religious status quo at a Jerusalem holy site — known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where al-Aqsa mosque stands, and to Jews as the Temple Mount — have fuelled the violence.
Non-Muslim prayer is banned around al-Aqsa and Israel has said it will not change that. But more visits by Jewish religious activists and ultra-nationalist Israeli politicians to the complex, where two biblical temples once stood, have done little to convince Palestinians.
with files from Reuters