A Palestinian stabbed and wounded a man at a station of Jerusalem’s light rail on Friday before he was shot dead by police, security guards and civilians, police said.
An Israeli man was wounded in the cross-fire. The man hurt in the stabbing was a US citizen, according to Israeli media. In the West Bank, two Palestinians carrying knives ran toward an Israeli checkpoint, drawing fire from troops who killed one and critically wounded the other, according to police and a Palestinian medic.
Friday’s incidents were the latest series of Palestinian attacks that began in mid-September and were accompanied by widespread unrest, including clashes between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli troops. In all, 11 Israelis were killed in attacks and 66 Palestinians by Israeli fire in the past six weeks. Forty of the Palestinians killed were said by Israel to have been involved in attacks or attempted attacks.
Israel has blamed the attacks on what it says is anti-Israel incitement by Palestinian political and religious leaders. Palestinians say the violence is largely driven by the hopelessness many Palestinians feel after nearly half a century of Israeli military rule, with no end in sight.
Also, Israeli forces imposed new restrictions on Palestinians in the Israeli-controlled center of Hebron, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, residents said.
The military barred Palestinians between the ages of 15 and 25 from entering a major Hebron shrine that is revered by both Muslims and Jews, said senior Muslim cleric Munther Abu Felat.
He said age restrictions were enforced only partially. In recent days, Hebron has become a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence, with near-daily deadly confrontations at Israeli checkpoints that guard enclaves of ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers in the centre of the city.
In these incidents, Palestinians have been shot dead after the military said they stabbed or tried to stab soldiers. Hebron has been divided since the late 1990s, as part of what was meant to be an interim agreement ahead of a final peace deal that never materialised.