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Stabbings, Violence Escalate in Jerusalem

by VOA News October 12, 2015

Palestinian youths escalated the pace of stabbing attacks Monday in the Jerusalem area and Israeli police shot dead two of the alleged assailants as the worst spell of street violence in years showed little sign of slowing.

Addressing a new session of parliament, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said 'knife terror will not defeat us' and that Israel had overcome previous waves of bombings, a reference to earlier Palestinian uprisings or intifadas.

Netanyahu called on Israeli lawmakers to take stronger action against the recent series of stabbings of Israelis by Palestinians. He accused Arab parties of 'undermining' the country, saying that certain representatives have spoken in favor of violence against Israelis.

Speaking in Vienna, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki accused Netanyahu of seeking to instigate a third intifada by 'violating the status quo' of East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa compound.

The holy site, known to Israelis as the Temple Mount, is sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu said Palestinian accusations that Israel is plotting to take over the site are an 'absolute lie' and called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to condemn the violence.

In the first incident Monday, Israeli police said an 18-year-old Palestinian identified as Mustafa al-Khatib attacked a policeman with a knife in Jerusalem's Old City and was shot dead by security forces.

The officer's protective vest stopped the knife and he was unharmed. The attacker, from east Jerusalem, was shot dead by other law enforcement personnel.

Later in the day, a female attacker stabbed an Israeli policeman near the force's headquarters in Jerusalem and was shot and wounded by the victim, police said.

In the third attack, two men stabbed two Israelis in the settlement of Pisgat Zeev on the northern edge of the city. One attacker, reportedly 16 years old, was killed and the other shot and seriously wounded.

The victims were both Jews, with a 16-year-old gravely wounded and a 20-year-old seriously wounded, police said. Pisgat Zeev was built on occupied land that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinians, already frustrated by continued Jewish settlements on lands they want for a future state, accuse Israelis of trying to restrict access to the compound. Israel denies the charge and blames Palestinian militants of inciting citizens to riot.

Four Israelis and 25 Palestinians, including seven alleged assailants and eight children, have died in the 12 days of bloodshed, stirred in part by Muslim anger over increasing Jewish visits to holy site.