Israel: Jerusalem Attacks Continue despite Checkpoints

Jerusalem attacks have continued only hours after Israeli forces launched a major security operation in Arab areas of the city.

On October 14, Israeli police blocked entrances to Jabal Mukaber, a district that was home to three men accused of killing three Israelis on October 13.

Later, police said they shot dead a Palestinian who had stabbed an Israeli woman at Jerusalem’s main bus station.

Another Palestinian tried to stab a police officer near the walled Old City.

The Palestinian, too, was shot dead by police, they added.

Since the beginning of October, seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in shooting and stabbing attacks, the Israeli authorities say.

At least 30 Palestinians have also been killed, including assailants, and hundreds have been injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Speaking for the first time since the upsurge in violence began, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israeli actions were “threatening to spark a religious conflict that would burn everything”.

Mahmoud Abbas also accused Israel of carrying out “executions of our children in cold blood”, highlighting the case of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot by Israeli police after he and a 15-year-old stabbed two Israelis on October 12.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the boy was alive in hospital, and described the Palestinian leader’s comments as “lies and incitement”.

Benjamin Netanyahu said on October 13 the new security measures were aimed at “those who try murder and with all those who assist them”.

On the same day Israel’s security cabinet authorized police to close or surround “centers of friction and incitement” in Jerusalem.

It also announced that the homes of Palestinians who attacked Israelis would be demolished within days and that their families’ right to live in Jerusalem would be taken away.

On October 14, Israeli police said checkpoints were set up at “the exits of Palestinian villages and neighborhoods in East Jerusalem”.

Hundreds of soldiers were also deployed.

Human Rights Watch warned that locking down parts of East Jerusalem would “infringe upon the freedom of movement of all Palestinian residents rather than being a narrowly tailored response to a specific concern”.

On October 14, Israeli police and Palestinians clashed in the West Bank city of Bethlehem after the funeral of a Palestinian man killed in violence the previous day.

Clashes were also reported along the Israeli border with Gaza.