Three More Palestinians Killed as Israel Violence Continues
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Three Palestinians were shot dead on Saturday in what Israel claimed were thwarted knife attacks, but a Palestinian witness of one incident said it was a result of Jewish settler violence, as tensions ran high after more than two weeks of unrest.
At least 40 Palestinians and seven Israelis have died in the violence, which was in part triggered by Palestinians’ anger over increased Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Israeli border police had stopped to question a 16-year-old Palestinian walking in “a suspicious manner” through a neighborhood around East Jerusalem, a police spokesman said. The teenager purportedly drew a knife and tried to stab the officers, who shot him dead, the spokesman claimed, Reuters reported.
A second shooting occurred near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron. The Israeli military claimed a Palestinian attempted to stab an Israeli, who was carrying a gun and then shot and killed the attacker.
A Palestinian high schooler, who witnessed the Hebron shooting, said it happened when Jewish settlers attacked an unarmed Palestinian, according the girl’s father who spoke with Reuters.
Also in Hebron, a female Palestinian stabbed an Israeli border policewoman, cutting her hand, a police spokesman said. The policewoman shot the attacker, he said.
More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in the last two weeks.
Peace talks collapsed in 2014 over Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Palestinians seek for a state.
The last major confrontation was the Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas in 2014, which left large sections of Gaza destroyed. Around 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 Israelis, almost all soldiers, were killed.