The gates of Jerusalem’s Old City, sacred to three world religions, became the latest flashpoint for growing violence as Israeli police killed two Palestinians who stabbed officers and others Saturday, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered police reinforcements in Jerusalem, according to a statement from his office Saturday.
About 1,300 reserve border police officers have been mobilized here and throughout the country. The additional force will continue as necessary as “a primary preventive and deterrent measure,” the statement said.
In the violence outside the Old City walls, police fatally shot both Palestinian assailants in separate incidents, Israeli authorities said.
Saturday evening, the Israeli Air Force targeted two Hamas weapon manufacturing facilities in Northern Gaza in response to a rocket fired into southern Israel.
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the rocket with no injuries or damage reported, according to the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner. He said this was the second rocket attack in the past two days.
According to the Gaza City Fire Department, as a result of the blasts in Gaza City, a house collapsed resulting in the deaths of a 3-year-old child and 35-year old woman who was five months pregnant. The Gaza City Ambulance Service said three others were wounded and taken to the hospital.
Violence has exploded throughout Israel and the Palestinian territories in the wake of recent restrictions by the Israeli government on the site Jews call the Temple Mount. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, which includes the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Almost a year ago, when Israel temporarily closed the site for the first time in a more than a decade, Palestinians became enraged, and a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it a “declaration of war.” The closure, done for security reasons, lasted a day.
This week’s escalating bloodshed included the outskirts of the Old City’s Damascus Gate, where a 16-year-old Palestinian boy stabbed two Israelis about 150 yards from the entrance Saturday, police said.
The two victims, 62 and 65, were lightly injured, and police killed the attacker after he allegedly ran toward officers with the knife, authorities said. The assailant was identified as Ishak Badran, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, police said.
A second knife attack also occurred near the Damascus Gate when a young Palestinian man stabbed two Israeli police officers, including one in the neck, after police checked his identification, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
Policemen from a nearby unit arrived on the scene and fired at the attacker, but two Israeli officers were wounded in the gunfire, Samri said. A total of three policemen were taken to hospital, with one in serious condition, she said.
The attacker was killed when police opened fire.
In total, five Palestinians died Saturday: three in Jerusalem, including the knife-wielding attackers, and two more in Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
However, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said seven Palestinians died Saturday, including Ibrahim Awad, 28, who was wounded by a rubber bullet Thursday during clashes. He died at Al Ahli Hospital in Hebron, the health ministry said.
Hundreds more Palestinians were injured in clashes in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, the Red Crescent added.
The aid group said Israeli forces fired tear gas into an ambulance in Bethlehem, injuring its crew, and struck medical crews in Gaza with tear gas.
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SOURCE: CNN, Michael Martinez, Michael Schwartz and Ben Wedeman
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