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Israeli Police Kill Attackers in Two Stabbings

by VOA News October 14, 2015

Israeli police shot and killed two assailants in separate stabbings in Jerusalem amid a wave of Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

In the first attack Wednesday, police killed the assailant as he tried to stab a security guard outside an entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. No Israelis were wounded in the incident.

A man described by police as a 'terrorist' later stabbed a woman near a bus station in Jerusalem and tried to board another bus before being shot dead.

The violence comes as Israel began deploying hundreds of troops in cities across the country to help police counter the violence, which has inflamed Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

The move was the first implementation of measures decided upon by Israel's Security Cabinet to combat the attacks. The Cabinet also announced Wednesday that it had authorized police to seal off 'centers of friction and incitement in Jerusalem.'

Many of the recent attackers have come from Arab areas of Jerusalem, and while much of the violence has taken place in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, the attacks have also spread to other areas of Israel.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the government would revoke the permanent residency rights of terrorists and would confiscate the property of those who carried out attacks.

'Escalating tensions'

The month of violence reached its deadliest day Tuesday with at least three Israelis killed.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said late Tuesday that he would travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories to try to calm the violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

'I will go there soon, at some point appropriately, and try to work to reengage and see if we can't move that away from this precipice,' he said.

Two Israelis were killed Tuesday when a Palestinian with a gun and another with two knives attacked passengers on a Jerusalem bus. Israeli security forces on the scene shot one of the attackers and wounded the other.

Elsewhere in Jerusalem, a man crashed a car into people at a bus stop, then got out of the vehicle and began stabbing pedestrians. One person was killed and several were injured. That attacker was also shot.

A third attack took place in Raanana, just north of Tel Aviv, where authorities said an assailant stabbed a civilian at a bus stop before being subdued by others and detained by police.

More than a dozen Israelis were wounded in the three attacks.

In Washington, the White House expressed concern Tuesday about 'escalating tensions' in Israel.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the U.S. condemned the attacks in the strongest possible terms. He called on all sides to show restraint.

In a speech to parliament, Netanyahu said his government would use all means available to end the Palestinian violence. He also urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stop inciting the violence.

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, appealed to the Security Council on Monday to take 'real action' to bring calm and demand that Israel immediately stop 'aggressions' against Palestinian civilians.

Some material for this report came from AP.