|
|
|
|
|
GAZA CITY, Palestine -- Unrest that erupted
several weeks ago at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site spread Friday
to Gaza in the form of deadly border clashes with Palestinian
protesters, as Israeli security forces struggled to contain a wave of
Palestinian stabbing attacks against civilians and soldiers.
For
the first time since the current violence began, clashes broke out
along the Gaza border after Palestinians in the territory ruled by the
Islamic militant group Hamas rolled burning tires and threw rocks at
Israeli troops on the frontier. Six Palestinians were killed and a dozen
were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The
Israeli military said "More than a thousand rioters infiltrated the
buffer zone engaging the forces at the security fence. Rioters reached
the security fence- hurled a grenade, rocks and rolled burning tires at
Israeli forces ... threatening to breach the fence and storm the
adjacent communities." It said troops fired warning shots and then fired
at main instigators to prevent their advance.
Recent
days have seen a series of attacks by young Palestinians wielding
household items like kitchen knives, screwdrivers and even a vegetable
peeler. The youths had no known links to armed groups who have targeted
Israeli soldiers and civilians at random, complicating security efforts.
The
violence, including the first apparent revenge attack by an Israeli,
raised fears of the unrest spiraling further out of control.
The
unpredictability and brutality of the assaults, coupled with the young
age of some of the attackers, have shocked Israelis and raised fears a
new Palestinian intifada - or uprising - could be underway.
In
Jerusalem, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a 14-year-old Israeli with
a vegetable peeler Friday before being arrested. In another attack near
the entrance of Kiryat Arba, a West Bank settlement, a Palestinian was
shot dead by a police officer after he attacked him with a knife and
tried to seize his weapon, police said.
In
northern Israel, a 29-year-old Arab-Israeli woman was shot and wounded
while trying to stab people at a bus station in the town of Afula, where
another stabbing had taken place the day before, police said.
Gaza-based
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh applauded the recent Palestinian stabbing
attacks across Israel at a speech at Friday prayers, labeling it as an
intifada.
Israeli officials have said the
violence is not on that scale for now, but rather is of the kind
unleashed periodically over the decades.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it a "terror wave." He and
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas have tried to lower tensions in
recent days but both appear unable to contain the unrest.
Veteran
commentator Ben Caspit told Channel 10 that Israel is on the "seam
line" between the violence spreading and containment. One of the
challenges is that there is no clear identifiable enemy, with about half
of "the lone-wolf" attackers coming from east Jerusalem and the rest
from the West Bank.
The acts are independent,
spontaneous moments of rage, he said, noting the stabbings with the
vegetable peeler and one involving a screwdriver the day before.
Household items are used as weapons because guns can be harder to get for Palestinians unaffiliated with militant groups.
Not
much can be done from an intelligence agency point of view to prevent
spontaneous attacks by an individual who "decides to take a screwdriver
and stab the first Jew that passes by," said Yuval Diskin, Israel's
former internal security chief, in an interview with Channel 2 TV.
Video
on social media Friday showed the moments when Israeli security forces
shot and wounded an Arab woman at the Afula bus station. Police said the
woman, who wore a long robe and Islamic headscarf, had pulled a knife
to stab a soldier and posed an "immediate threat."
The
video showed the woman surrounded by several members of the security
forces with their guns drawn. Israeli media said security personnel
called to her in Arabic and Hebrew multiple times to put the weapon down
and that she had waved it while yelling, "Death to police." The police
later released video of a long-bladed kitchen knife they said she had
used.
The woman was shot in her lower body and treated at a hospital.
A Palestinian stabbing attack had occurred in the same city a day before.
Protests
spread late Friday to northern Israel where scores of people from the
country's Arab minority clashed with officers in protests linked to the
unrest with the Palestinians.
Arab citizens
make up some 20 percent of Israel's population. They enjoy full
citizenship rights but have long complained of discrimination in
housing, jobs and other areas of society. They often identify with
Palestinian nationalism.
The latest unrest
began about three weeks ago, when Palestinians repeatedly barricaded
themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City,
hurling stones, firebombs and fireworks at police.
It
was fueled by Palestinian allegations that Israel plans to change the
delicate arrangement at the hilltop compound, sacred to both Muslims and
Jews. Israel has adamantly denied the allegations and accused
Palestinian leaders of inciting the violence and spreading lies over the
shrines in east Jerusalem. Abbas gave a hard-line speech at the U.N.
last month, saying Israelis desecrate the holy site with their "dirty
feet."
Non-Muslim visitors are only allowed to
enter the site at specific hours and are banned by police from praying
there. Many Muslims view these visits as a provocation and accuse Jewish
extremists of plotting to take over the site. Israel has promised to
ensure the delicate arrangement at the site and insists it will not
allow the status quo to be changed.
The fate
of the hilltop site is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It is revered to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of the two biblical
Jewish temples, and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where they
believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
The
attacks initially were confined to east Jerusalem and the West Bank -
both territories captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war and
claimed by the Palestinians for a future state - but spread to Tel Aviv
and other Israeli cities this week.
What began
as Palestinians throwing rocks and firebombs at passing cars and police
has morphed into a deadly shooting and knife attacks by Palestinians on
Israeli civilians and soldiers.
In what
appeared to be the first revenge attack amid the violence, an Israeli
man stabbed and wounded four Arabs in the southern Israeli city of
Dimona, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. After his arrest, the
assailant said he acted in retaliation for the numerous Palestinian
attacks, Israeli media reported.
The attacker
is a "mentally ill man," said Dimona Mayor Beni Bitton, telling Channel
10 that two of the victims worked for City Hall, and that passers-by
quickly provided first aid to the wounded Arabs.
Netanyahu
"strongly condemned the harming of innocent Arabs," saying that anyone
who resorts to violence will be brought to justice.
In
Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby referred to the
Palestinian attacks on Israelis as "acts of terror." Kirby said he had
no details on the Israeli attack when asked.
It
was mostly quiet Friday at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israeli police banned
men under 45 from the compound while women of all ages entered freely.
The age limit has been imposed intermittently because authorities
believe that younger Palestinians are mostly involved in the violence.
Five
Palestinians have been killed while carrying out attacks against
Israelis over the past week, while another three Palestinians were
killed in protests and clashes in the West Bank. The Red Crescent
medical service says over 500 Palestinians have been wounded in violent
protests in the West Bank since the weekend, including about 100 from
live fire.
Last week, Palestinians shot two
Israelis to death in front of their children in the West Bank. In a
separate incident, Palestinians killed two Israeli men and wounded a
mother and toddler in Jerusalem.
--
No comments:
Post a Comment