Man stabs Israelis to death after killing of three Palestinians
THREE Israelis were stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement last night hours after three Palestinians were killed during violent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators.
A Palestinian attacker broke into a home in the settlement of Neve Tsuf, north of Jerusalem, and killed two men and a woman before he was shot, the Israeli military said. His condition was unknown last night. Another woman was wounded in the attack.
The stabbings came after thousands of young Palestinians fought street battles with Israeli security services in protest at new security measures put in place at the al-aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Mohammed Mahmoud Sharaf, a 17-year-old Palestinian, died after being shot in the neck by an Israeli settler in east Jerusalem’s Ras al-amud neighbourhood, according to the Palestinian news agency Maan.
Another Palestinian man was killed on the Mount of Olives after being shot during a clash with Israeli police, while a third was killed in the West Bank town of Abu Dis, the Palestinian health ministry said. The deaths on both sides are likely to inflame the already volatile situation in Jerusalem.
Israel set up metal detectors at entrances to the al-aqsa mosque last week after Palestinian gunmen smuggled weapons inside and used them to kill two Israeli police officers in the streets of the Old City. But the devices have provoked a backlash from Palestinians, who see them as part of an Israeli effort to assert control over the holy site, which is also sacred to Jews who know it as the Temple Mount.
Palestinian crowds have refused to pass through the metal detectors and instead have carried out their services in the street outside the mosque.
“They are taking al-aqsa from us. Without al-aqsa we are nothing,” said one man, who prayed with hundreds of others in the street in 89F (31C) heat.
The prayers passed off peacefully, but later young men gathered to chant abuse at the police. The situation escalated as the group marched towards police lines and soon the streets were full of smoke from Israeli stun grenades and Palestinian rubbish fires.
The Palestinian Authority – the semiautonomous Palestinian government in the West Bank – said yesterday it was suspending all official contact with Israel until the detectors were removed.