Fresh Violence Shatters Lull in West Bank, Gaza
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Violence erupted Friday in the Palestinian territories after a lull in weeks of unrest, with two Palestinians shot dead, including a 73-year-old woman.
The new round of violence came ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Washington, where he will meet US President Barack Obama on Monday.
Attacks and violent protests throughout October raised fears of a new Palestinian uprising. Unrest has often erupted after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Fridays.
Most of the recent tensions have occurred in the southern West Bank city of Hebron and have mainly involved disproportinate violence by Israeli police in response to alleged stabbing attacks by Palestinians.
Two Palestinians were shot dead Friday, including a 73-year-old woman, while back-to-back Palestinian shootings wounded three Israelis, two of them seriously, the Israeli military said, AFP reported.
Isreali military claimed the elderly woman was shot dead after an attempt to attack troops with a car. Her son, However, denied she tried to harm anyone, and that she was on her way to lunch with her sister when she was killed.
On the Gaza-Israel border, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in a confrontation between stone-throwers and Israeli troops, Gaza health officials said. The Israeli army confirmed they had shot a suspect, saying they responded after Palestinians tried to breach the buffer zone between Gaza and Israel.
Shots were fired at Jewish worshippers leaving a major shrine in the Israeli-controlled downtown area Friday afternoon, wounding two people, one of them seriously, the Israeli military claimed.
Media reports said a 16-year-old was seriously wounded and an 18-year-old was lightly hurt. They said the shots were fired from a distance.
The shrine is revered by Muslims and Jews as the burial site of biblical patriarchs and matriarchs. Thousands of Jewish worshippers visited Hebron Friday for prayers linked to Sarah, the biblical matriarch believed to be buried at the site.
Later Friday, an Israeli was shot and seriously wounded by shots to the head fired from a passing car on the outskirts of Hebron, the military said. Israeli media said the victim was 19 years old and critically injured.
The latest violence came after nearly two months of Israeli-triggered confrontations.
Palestinians say the violence is due to efforts by Israelis to change the status quo at the al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem (al-Quds). They fear that the increasing visits by Jewish groups to the site, captured by Israeli forces when they seized east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in a 1967 war, are eroding Muslim religious control there.
Since mid-September, 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and 11 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them in stabbings. 27 more Palestinians have reportedly been killed in clashes between stone-throwers and security forces.
Rights groups have blamed Israeli troops for using excessive force against Palestinians, in some cases shooting dead suspected attackers who could have been arrested.