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In
Jerusalem, where most of the violence has taken place, police
spokeswoman Luba Samri said a 16-year-old Palestinian drew a knife on
officers early Saturday when they asked for identification after a
bystander said he was behaving suspiciously. She said the officers shot
and killed the teenager after he tried to stab them. The incident took
place near where two Palestinian men boarded a bus earlier in the week
and began shooting and stabbing passengers, killing two.
Later,
another assailant tried to stab a policeman on the outskirts of
Jerusalem, but struck his bulletproof vest and did not injure him. The
assailant was shot and wounded. Police said when an officer approached
to treat the attacker, he pulled out a second knife and attempted to
attack him. He was then shot and killed.
The
other three stabbing attacks Saturday took place in the West Bank city
of Hebron, a frequent flashpoint where a few hundred Jewish settlers
live in close proximity to tens of thousands of Palestinians.
In
the first incident, Israel's military said an Israeli pedestrian shot
and killed a Palestinian who tried to stab him. Later, police said a
Palestinian woman stabbed a female officer at a border police base in
Hebron and lightly injured her before the officer shot her dead. At
night, the army said a soldier was stabbed and moderately wounded before
the attacker was shot. There were no immediate details on his
condition.
Over the past month, eight Israelis
have been killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them stabbings. In
that time, 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 19
labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli
troops.
Israel has taken unprecedented steps
in response to the attacks. It has deployed soldiers in Israeli cities
and erected concrete barriers outside some Arab neighborhoods of east
Jerusalem, where most of the attackers came from. Ordinary citizens have
also increasingly taken up arms to protect themselves.
On
Saturday, roadblocks on the outskirts of Arab neighborhoods caused
massive traffic jams, with some frustrated motorists saying they had
been waiting for several hours. On the edge of the Issawiyeh
neighborhood, drivers honked their horns at a group of Israeli police
and paramilitary border police who were taking their time checking each
car and asking some of the younger Palestinians to lift up their shirts
to show they were not armed.
Palestinians said
the roadblocks are collective punishment and ineffective in deterring
attackers since those with bad intentions would try to reach Jewish
neighborhoods through dirt roads anyway.
"People are very upset," said Emad Obeid, a 30-year-old taxi driver. "This will just cause new attacks."
Most
of the attacks on Israelis have been carried out by Palestinians with
no known ties to militant groups, in many cases seemingly inspired by
messages on social media.
The daily attacks
have caused a sense of panic across Israel and raised fears that the
region is on the cusp of a new round of heavy violence. Palestinians say
the violence is the result of nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation,
more than two decades of failed peace efforts and a lack of hope for
gaining independence anytime soon.
The
violence erupted a month ago over the Jewish New Year, fueled by rumors
that Israel was plotting to take over Jerusalem's most sensitive holy
site, a hilltop compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and home to
the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine and a key national
symbol for the Palestinians.
Israel has
adamantly denied the allegations, saying it has no plans to change the
status quo at the site, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray.
The Palestinian fears stem in part from the growing number of Jews
visiting the compound in recent months, especially during holidays, with
the encouragement of Jewish activists groups and senior government
officials.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
has at times tried to calm the situation by saying violence is not in
the Palestinians' interest and behind the scenes has ordered his
security forces to reduce frictions.
But
Israel accuses him of incitement, saying he has not condemned attacks on
Israelis and pointing to his false accusation last week that Israel
"summarily executed" a Palestinian boy who stabbed an Israeli boy. The
Palestinian teen is recovering in an Israeli hospital.
Many
of the attackers have been Palestinian youth, and a local police
commander at the scene of Saturday's attack in Jerusalem pleaded for
parents to restrain them.
"I call on the
parents to show responsibility for their children and tell us, the
police, about any unusual behavior," Haim Shmueli said. "Inform us so
that we can deal with these kids and won't have to get to a place where
we have to track them down here on the streets and neutralize them."
Late
Saturday, hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists marched
through the streets of Jerusalem, chanting "Jews and Arabs refuse to be
enemies." The demonstrators were heavily guarded by Israel's security
forces.
"We came here to show that Jews and
Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, can stand together and move toward a
different policy, a policy of a just peace, of independence for both of
our people," said Uri Weltmann, a social activist and teacher from
Haifa.
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