Mideast violence:
Palestinians firebomb a West Bank shrine revered by Jews.
JERUSALEM — Palestinians set fire to a West Bank shrine holy to Jews, drawing sharp condemnation on Friday not only from Israel but from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been heavily criticized for failing to denounce a recent spate of stabbing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
The overnight firebomb attack damaged part of the complex that devout Jews believe houses the tomb of the biblical patriarch Joseph, outside the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The site is under Palestinian control, but Jews are allowed to visit for prayers under Israeli army escort.
Video from the scene showed flames leaping into the air above the small stone structure; Palestinian security forces put out the fire.
Meanwhile, tensions flared elsewhere in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, resulting in at least four Palestinian deaths and dozens of injuries, according to Palestinian officials.
A Palestinian man who apparently posed as a news photographer by wearing a vest emblazoned with the word “Press” was shot dead in the West Bank city of Hebron after he stabbed an Israeli soldier, the army said. The soldier was moderately injured.
At least two other Palestinians were killed and more than three dozen others hurt in a series of stone-throwing clashes with Israeli troops at several points along Gaza’s security fence with Israel, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Israeli troops fired tear gas and live ammunition when protesters approached a crossing point, Palestinian witnesses said.
The Red Crescent reported an additional Palestinian death during daytime clashes in Nablus, where the overnight firebombing underscored the religious sensitivities driving the current outbreak of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Palestinians for months have been accusing Israel of seeking to change a long-standing agreement governing prayer access to a key holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel denies it is trying to change the status quo at the raised plateau known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount in order to allow Jews to pray there.
Friday Muslim prayers at the site, the most important of the week, are sometimes a flash point, but despite calls from the militant group Hamas for a “Day of Rage,” they passed relatively peacefully in the Old City amid tight security. Men under 40 were banned from attending.