Four Palestinians, including assailant, killed by Israeli fire in West Bank, Gaza
RAM ALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRI TO
Stone- throwing protests eruptR Y ed across the West Bank and Gaza on Friday, and assailants firebombed a site revered by Jews as the tomb of biblical Joseph on a “day of rage” against Israel. Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including a labourer disguised as a journalist who stabbed an Israeli soldier.
The UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting to discuss the escalation, which has been marked by a spate of Palestinian stabbing attacks and an Israeli security crackdown. Troops manned roadblocks in Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, a centre of unrest, and ordered some Palestinian men to lift their shirts to show they were not armed.
On Friday, hundreds joined protests after Muslim noon prayers, after Palestinian factions called for a “day of rage.”
Israeli troops opened fire in several locations, killing three Palestinians, including two in Gaza and a 19- year- old in the town of Beit Furik in the West Bank.
Munadil Hanani, a protest organizer in Beit Furik, said hundreds of Palestinians walked to an Israeli military post on the outskirts of the town and threw stones at troops who responded with live rounds and rubber- coated steel pellets. “They were very angry and wanted to attack the soldiers,” he said of the stone- throwers, most of them teens.
Nearby, in the West Bank city of Nablus, dozens of Palestinians firebombed a site known as Joseph’s Tomb that is revered by some Jews as the burial place of the son of the biblical patriarch Jacob. The predawn attack blackened exterior walls of the stone structure.
Abbas condemned the arson as “irresponsible,” ordered an investigation and promised quick repairs.
In the West Bank city of Hebron, meanwhile, a 26- year- old Palestinian labourer posed as a journalist covering a stone- throwing clash to get close to Israeli soldiers. Wearing a T- shirt with the word “press” in large letters on the front and back, the man mingled with journalists standing near the soldiers, who were firing tear gas at stonethrowers.
At one point, shouts were heard, followed by several gunshots.
Troops rushed to the scene where one of the soldiers had been stabbed, and administered aid to the wounded soldier who was eventually taken away by ambulance. The attacker, identified as Eyad Awawdeh, lay on the ground, clutching a knife in his right hand.