The gates of Jerusalem’s Old City, sacred to three world religions, became the latest flashpoint for growing violence as Palestinian assailants with knives stabbed Israeli police and others on Saturday, authorities said.
Both Palestinians assailants were fatally shot by police in separate incidents, Israeli authorities said.
Violence has exploded throughout Israel and the Palestinian territories in the wake of recent restrictions by the Israeli government on the site Jews call the Temple Mount. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary.
The escalating bloodshed has now reached the outskirts of the Old City’s Damascus Gate where a 16-year-old Palestinian boy stabbed two Israelis about 150 yards from the entrance, police said.
The two victims, ages 62 and 65, were lightly injured, and police killed the attacker after he allegedly ran toward officers with the knife, authorities said. The assailant was identified as Ishak Badran, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, police said.
A second knife attack also occurred near the Damascus Gate when a young Palestinian man stabbed two Israeli police officers, including one in the neck, after police checked his identification, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
A third police officer was also injured and taken to the hospital, with no further details of the circumstances, police said. One of the three officers is in serious condition.
The attacker was also killed when police opened fire.
Israeli and Palestinian officials weren’t immediately available to comment on the latest turn in violence.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s overall death toll included two Palestinian boys, ages 14 and 15, who were killed in clashes in Gaza and a Palestinian man in his 20s who as killed in clashes in the Shufat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
In the West Bank, central Hebron burned with thick smoke from flaming tires as young Palestinian men clashed with Israeli police and soldiers.
“Israelis only know the language of violence, so we will resist,” one masked Palestinian youth told CNN’s Ben Wedeman.
Another youth chimed in: “We’ve tried negotiations and it didn’t work. So now we will fight.”
Smaller clashed also unfolded in Bethlehem, where tear gas permeated the air.
Days of violence
Blood has been flowing for days now.
On Friday, at least seven Palestinians were killed and 90 injured in clashes in Gaza, according to medical sources there. Also, one person was killed Friday by police in the West Bank, and several other people were injured in attacks in northern and southern Israel.
On Thursday, Palestinians with a knives attacked Israelis in Hebron and Jerusalem and stabbed a female Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv, all separate incidents involving a different assailant. One Palestinian attacker was killed by police in the Tel Aviv assault, police said. None of the victims were reported killed. One attacker was arrested in Jerusalem, and the other was being sought.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday urged Arab and Israeli leaders to stay away from one of the country’s holiest sites in an effort to keep tensions from getting out of hand.
In a televised speech, Netanyahu asked Jewish and Arab political leaders to steer clear of the area for fear that any visits could spark an “explosive” event. Anger has been brewing among Palestinians over Israeli restrictions on access to the site.
The site is sacred to both Judaism and Islam and, as such, has become a focal point of discord.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said earlier this week that he doesn’t want the situation to escalate.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas called for protests on Friday, in what they called a “day of rage” that began with violent protests in the West Bank, in which Israeli riot police fired rubber-coated steel bullets in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
Refugee camp clash
The Palestinian man killed in the Saturday clash in the Shufat refugee camp was identified as Ahmad Jamal Salah, 20, said Yousef Imkhaimer, an activist from inside the camp in East Jerusalem.
Dozens were also injured during overnight clashes in the camp between Palestinians and Israeli forces, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
An Israeli police spokesman said “a group of terrorists” from the camp attacked an Israeli checkpoint with gunfire, explosive devices, Molotov cocktails and rocks and its forces fired back.
One person was shot and transferred to a local hospital for treatment, according Luba Samri, an Israeli police spokeswoman. She said he is in critical condition.
West Bank
A CNN team witnessed violent clashes in central Hebron between hundreds of youth and Israeli border police and soldiers. Several injuries were evident.
Palestinian youths threw rocks and Molotov cocktails, while Israeli soldiers fired small-caliber guns at the stone throwers and used stun grenades and tear gas on youth behind makeshift barricades of doors and dumpsters.
The air was thick with black smoke from burning tires.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian suspect infiltrated the Negohot settlement near Hebron that was referred to “the Booster community,” the Israeli military said. An Israeli soldier spotted a person with a shotgun and a knife, and a civilian security officer shot at the suspect’s lower extremities, injuring him. No further details were immediately available, authorities said.
Gaza
The Gaza Strip was also an arena of bloodshed.
Killed in clashes with the Israeli military in eastern Khan Younis were 14-year-old Marwan Barbakh and 15-year-old Khalil Othman, Palestinian medical sources said.
Injuries were reported in clashes along the fence between Gaza’s Shajaiya and Israel’s Nahal Oz.
Clashes also erupted in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza not far from Erez Crossing, the Palestinian medical sources added.
A rocket was launched from Gaza into southern Israel, but the projectile landed in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council, and no casualties were reported, the Israeli military said.