The gates of Jerusalem’s Old City, sacred to three world religions, became the latest flashpoint for growing violence as Israeli police killed two Palestinians who stabbed officers and others Saturday, authorities said.
The Palestinian death toll from the weekend’s violence hit nine Sunday, as the days of violence continued with stabbings, shootings and an explosion.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered police reinforcements in Jerusalem, according to a statement from his office Saturday.
About 1,300 reserve border police officers have been mobilized here and throughout the country. The additional force will continue as necessary as “a primary preventive and deterrent measure,” the statement said.
In the violence outside the Old City walls, police fatally shot both Palestinian assailants in separate incidents, Israeli authorities said.
Saturday evening, the Israeli air force targeted two Hamas weapon manufacturing facilities in northern Gaza in response to a rocket fired into southern Israel.
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the rocket with no injuries or damage reported, according to the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner. He said this was the second rocket attack in the past two days.
House collapse kills two
According to the Gaza City Fire Department, as a result of the blasts in Gaza City, a house collapsed resulting in the deaths of a 3-year-old child and a 35-year-old woman who was five months pregnant. The Gaza City Ambulance Service said three others were wounded and taken to the hospital.
And on Sunday morning, an Israeli policeman was injured and a 31-year-old Palestinian woman severely burned when she deliberately ignited a gas canister after being pulled over in a traffic stop.
The woman was pulled over near a West Bank checkpoint after she was spotted driving suspiciously at about 7 a.m., the Israeli Security Agency said. She ignited the gas canister as the officer was speaking to her.
Violence has exploded throughout Israel and the Palestinian territories in the wake of recent restrictions by the Israeli government on the site that Jews call the Temple Mount. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, which includes the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Almost a year ago, when Israel temporarily closed the site for the first time in a more than a decade, Palestinians became enraged, and a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called it a “declaration of war.” The closure, done for security reasons, lasted a day.
Police kill 16-year-old after alleged stabbing
The week’s escalating bloodshed included 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 Saturday, police said.
The two victims, 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, one of them in the neck, after police checked his identification, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
Policemen from a nearby unit arrived on the scene and fired at the attacker, but two Israeli officers were wounded in the gunfire, Samri said. A total of three policemen were taken to hospital, with one in serious condition, she said.
The attacker was killed when police opened fire.
In total, seven Palestinians died Saturday: four in Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the knife-wielding attackers, and three more in Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The toll by midday Sunday was two dead in Gaza.
Hundreds more Palestinians were injured in clashes in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, the Red Crescent added.
The aid group said Israeli forces fired tear gas into an ambulance in Bethlehem, injuring its crew, and struck medical crews in Gaza with tear gas.
‘We will resist’
Saturday’s 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 was killed in overnight 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.
Another youth chimed in: “We’ve tried negotiations and it didn’t work. So now we will fight.”
Smaller clashes also unfolded in Bethlehem, where tear gas permeated the air.
Days of violence
Blood has been flowing for days now.
Friday, at least seven Palestinians were killed and 90 injured in clashes in Gaza, according to medical sources there. An eighth person hurt in those clashes died Saturday from his injuries.
In the West Bank, one person was killed Friday by police. Several other people were injured in attacks in northern and southern Israel.
Thursday, Palestinians with knives attacked Israelis in Hebron and Jerusalem and stabbed a female Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv, all separate incidents involving different assailants. One Palestinian attacker was killed by police in the Tel Aviv assault, police said. None of the victims was reported killed. One attacker was arrested in Jerusalem, and another was being sought.
Netanyahu urged Arab and Israeli leaders Thursday to stay away from the Temple Mount 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. As a sacred site to both Judaism and Islam, the area is a focal point of discord.
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 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 that Israeli forces fired back.
One person was shot and transferred to a local hospital for treatment, according to Samri, the 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 people were injured by rubber bullets.
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 youths 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, also referred to as “the Booster community,” near Hebron, 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, injuring him. No further details were immediately available, authorities said.
Gaza
Gaza 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.
In one incident, several Palestinians in Gaza breached the fence, and five of them were caught by the Israeli military and taken for questioning, the military said. The remainder retreated into Gaza.
“The reality Israel faces on the border with Gaza is one of a hostile and violent entity. That entity has attacked Israel with snipers, explosive devices, tunnels and others,” said Lerner, the IDF spokesman.
A rocket was launched from Gaza into southern Israel in the early hours of Saturday, but the projectile landed in an open area in the Eshkol region, and no casualties were reported, the Israeli military said.