CNN | - |
(CNN)
Israeli authorities reported three Palestinians pulling knives then
being shot dead, as the spate of violence afflicting Israelis and
Palestinians continued Saturday.
More die as violence and finger-pointing plague Israelis and Palestinians
Story highlights
- Two would-be stabbers killed in separate incidents, Israel says
- Palestinian news agency says Israelis shot two Palestinians dead, makes no mention of knives
- More than 30 Palestinians reported dead in recent weeks; five died Friday, ministry says
(CNN)Israeli
authorities reported three Palestinians pulling knives then being shot
dead, as the spate of violence afflicting Israelis and Palestinians
continued Saturday.
But the
Palestinian version of the day's violence was different. The official
Palestinian news agency WAFA mentioned no knives and said Israelis
simply shot two Palestinians dead.
Neither side related its accounts to those reported by the other side. It was unclear if these were the same incidents.
Saturday's incidents as reported by both sides:
Jerusalem
Israeli
border police approached a Palestinian man in the Armon Hanatsiv
neighborhood of Jerusalem to conduct a check Saturday, and the man
pulled a knife and tried to stab the officers, according to a statement
from Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri.
Samri
said "the policemen fired and neutralized" the suspect. Israel's Magen
David Adom emergency services confirmed in a statement that the
Palestinian man had died of his injuries.
The Palestinian official news agency had a different report.
Mutez
Awaysat, 16, was killed by Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, WAFA
reported, citing eyewitnesses. The Palestinian teen was shot by Israeli
soldiers at short range.
Hebron
In
Hebron on the West Bank, a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli
pedestrian, according to the Israel Defense Forces. But the Israeli
civilian was armed, and shot the assailant dead.
Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported the shooting death of a Palestinian there but mentioned no knife.
It
said that Fadhil Qawasmi, 18, was killed by a Jewish settler while
walking down the street. The settler had intercepted Qawasmi, cursed at
him, then shot him while Qawasmi tried to walk back in the direction he
came from.
In a second incident in
Hebron, a Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli border policewoman at the
Ashmoret Yitzhak Border Police base, according to Israeli police. The
border policewoman shot and killed the suspect. The officer was lightly
wounded.
CNN has seen no reports of a third incident from Palestinian sources.
Deadly clashes
Seven
Israelis have been killed since October 1 in attacks by Palestinians
with knives, guns and cars, according to Israeli officials.
Distinct
from that, protesters have also rioted in Palestinian territories, many
throwing rocks, and at times Israeli security forces have used live
ammunition.
Five Palestinians were
killed Friday in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza,
according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Also
Friday, 269 Palestinians were injured during confrontations with the
IDF in the West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent told CNN.
This
is in addition to the more than 1,100 injured before then, not to
mention the more than 30 Palestinians that Palestinian official say have
been killed in the past month.
Both
sides have traded blame about who is responsible for the ongoing
violence. Both sides have turned up gruesome video recordings to support
their claims.
Joseph's tomb set alight
Overnight
Thursday, a group of Palestinians set fire to a compound housing
Joseph's Tomb, a religious site in the West Bank venerated by Jews,
sparking condemnations between Palestinian and Israeli authorities.
The tomb appeared unharmed.
Jews
consider the site in Nablus the final resting place of Joseph, a high
Israelite patriarch and son of Jacob who, according to biblical
accounts, was sold into slavery as a boy but then rose to become a
powerful figure in ancient Egypt, second only to the pharaoh.
Jewish
devotees at times go to the tomb under Israel Defense Forces escort at
night to pray. Christians also consider Joseph's Tomb a holy site. It's
been targeted before -- including in 2011 when vandals painted swastikas on its walls.
A
Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, said that the fire was
set while other people tried to keep Israeli forces out, whom they
feared would tear down Palestinian homes.
Attacks not believed to be organized
The
recent knife attacks have confounded Israeli authorities. They have
spent millions to prevent suicide bombings with high concrete barriers
and to stop rockets from Gaza with the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
But
a knife is easy to obtain and carry into a crowd. Israeli authorities
so far don't believe the attacks are the result of any campaign of
violence organized by militant groups.
Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, has praised the attacks but not claimed responsibility for them.
It's
often young Palestinians who may be acting out alone or recruited or at
least encouraged via social media, Israeli authorities have said.
Civilians arming themselves
In
this atmosphere of fear, many Israelis are changing the routes of their
commutes, and many who have handgun permits are carrying weapons.
Others are applying for permits.
The Israeli government has even called for them to do so.
In recent days, Israeli security forces have swiftly shot dead two Palestinian teenagers who attacked with knives. Abbas, the Palestinian President, accused Israel of committing what he called "extrajudicial executions."
A coalition of human rights organizations -- including Amnesty International and the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories -- has said police and soldiers are "too quick to shoot to kill" and criticized calls for civilians to carry weapons.
Clashes at holy site
Palestinian resentments are hardly new, but Israelis and Palestinians have had better relations at times.
Those
have since been buried by the second intifada, in which organized
deadly attacks targeted Israelis from 2000 to 2005, and three wars in
Gaza that killed thousands of Palestinians.
Hard-line
Jewish activists have begun demanding greater access to the Temple
Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, in Jerusalem's Old City, and
right-wing politicians have called for the rights of Jews to pray there.
Known as Haram Al-Sharif or the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, it's also
one of the holiest sites in Islam.
The
Palestinian representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, has
accused Israeli security forces of escorting Jewish hardliners onto the
Temple Mount and into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Clashes at the site have become common.
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