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.
According to Israeli police, at least three Israelis have been killed and many injured in shooting and stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and central Israel.
Two were killed and 16 others were wounded when two assailants opened fire and stabbed passengers on a bus in Jerusalem.
Another died in a vehicle and knife attack elsewhere in the city.
Near-daily stabbings by Palestinians have left dozens of Israelis dead and wounded over the past two weeks.
Several attackers and at least 17 other Palestinians have been killed in the upsurge of violence.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will convene an emergency session of the security cabinet on October 13 to discuss the surge in violence.
The militant Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, praised the “heroic operations in Jerusalem and greets the heroes who carried them out”.
In the bus attack, the two assailants shot several passengers and stabbed others after boarding the vehicle in East Talpiot, a district in East Jerusalem also known as Armon HaNetziv, police said.
A security guard was able to overpower one of them and shoot him, Israeli media said. The second assailant then reportedly locked the bus doors in an attempt to stop police from boarding it and passengers from escaping, but police opened fire from outside and shot him.
Police said one of the attackers was killed and the other seriously wounded.
Minutes later, a man ran over three people with his car at a bus station in the Geula district of West Jerusalem. He then got out of the car stabbed them with a knife, police said. The attacker, identified as a resident of East Jerusalem, was shot by police. His condition is unclear.
Earlier in the morning, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli man, moderately wounding him, at a bus stop in Raanana, a town north of Tel Aviv, police said. The attacker was captured and reportedly beaten and seriously injured by passers-by.
Not long afterwards, at least four other people were wounded in another knife attack in Raanana, police said. The assailant fled, but was then arrested by police.
Police identified both of the attackers in Raanana as residents of East Jerusalem.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have escalated since last month, fuelled by clashes at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, and across the Gaza border, as well as the wave of stabbings.
A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli police on October 12 after he allegedly attacked an officer with a knife in Jerusalem.
This is the latest incident in a recent wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Police say the officer was saved by his protective vest. The attacker’s identity is not yet known.
There has been a string of stabbings of Israelis by Palestinians, and an apparent revenge stabbing by an Israeli, in the past two weeks.
Photo Haaretz
Two Israelis and dozens of Palestinians, including attackers, have been killed in the upsurge of violence.
According to Israeli police, the attacker stabbed the officer after being stopped when he was seen acting suspiciously.
It happened near the Lion’s Gate entrance of Jerusalem’s walled Old City, scene of several other previous stabbings of Israelis.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have soared recently, fuelled by clashes at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, and across the Gaza border, and the wave of Palestinian stab attacks.
There were more stabbings at the weekend. Several Palestinians were also killed in clashes with Israeli troops and by an Israeli air strike on a militant site in Gaza in response to rocket fire on Israel.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) are liable for six attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004, a New York court has ruled.
Six attacks in and around Jerusalem killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more during the second Palestinian intifada more than 10 years ago.
The jury awarded victims of the attacks more than $218 million.
The Palestinian groups expressed dismay at the court’s decision and vowed they would appeal.
As some of the victims were American citizens, the lawsuit was filed in a US court.
Photo AP
After deliberating for a day, jurors ruled in favor of 10 American families who were seeking damages related to the six attacks.
The Israeli government has denied any official involvement in the lawsuit.
A joint statement by the PLO and the PNA described the charges as “baseless” and said they were disappointed by the ruling.
The victims’ families allege that internal documents show the attacks were approved by the Palestinian authorities.
“Those involved in the attacks still receive salaries from the Palestinian Authority and still get promoted in rank while in jail,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Israel-based Shurat HaDin Law Center, a lawyer who is representing the victims’ families.
But defense lawyer Mark Rochon told jurors that the PA and PLO did not have knowledge of the attacks before they took place.
He said the organizations could not be held liable for the actions of suicide bombers and gunmen, whom he argued acted alone.
The victims had requested more than $350 million. The US Anti-Terrorism Act could yet allow for the fine to be tripled.
[googlead tip=”lista_medie” aliniat=”stanga”]Israel new air strikes came hours after gunmen armed with heavy weapons and explosives killed at least 7 people in southern Israel.
Israel launches new air strikes on Gaza today after accusing militants in the Palestinian territory for deadly attacks near Eilat on Thursday before noon.
According to the militants, 5 Palestinians were killed in today strikes.
Israel launches new air strikes on Gaza today after accusing militants in the Palestinian territory for deadly attacks near Eilat on Thursday before noon
Earlier today, at least 7 people died when squads of gunmen armed with heavy weapons and explosives came to southern Israel from Egypt and attacked buses, cars and an army patrol, officials said.
The Israel’s government immediately reacted to Gaza attacks, spokesman Mark Regev saying:
“This is specific information.”
“This is not an assessment. This is not an estimate. This is very, very precise information that they came out of Gaza. We have no doubt.”
But he did not provide further details.
A spokesman for the Hamas government in Gaza, Taher Nunu denied that the militants were involved:
“Gaza has nothing to do with these attacks in Eilat.”
The attacks in Israel began around midday local time and lasted for about 3 hours.[googlead tip=”patrat_mediu” aliniat=”dreapta”]
Attackers targeted a packed bus driving along a road about 10 miles north of the Red Sea resort, close to the border crossing into Sinai. Within one hour, the attackers opened fire on another bus and two civilian vehicles on the same road, and an army vehicle rushing to the area drove over an explosive device, the military said in a statement.
Local TV footage showed a bus pulled off the road with its door and windows shattered, and soldiers were patrolling the area on foot. Inside the bus, seats were stained with blood, and luggage littered the aisle.
“We heard a shot and saw a window explode. I didn’t really understand what was happening at first. After another shot there was chaos in the bus and everyone jumped on everyone else,” passenger Idan Kaner told Channel 2 TV.
He also said the attack lasted 3 or 4 minutes until the bus was able to drive away.
Entrances and exits to Eilat were sealed, as roadblocks were thrown up in the area.
A “large number” of attackers were working in multiple squads, the military said, but gave no specifics.
Israeli military spokeswoman, Avital Leibovich said:
“We are talking about a terror squad that infiltrated into Israel.”
“This is a combined terrorist attack against Israelis.”
“Israeli security forces tracked down some of the assailants and killed 7 in a gun battle,” she added.
[googlead tip=”vertical_mediu” aliniat=”stanga”] Israel said the assailants came from the Gaza Strip and made their way through Sinai, which borders both Israel and Gaza.
“The incident underscores the weak Egyptian hold on Sinai and the broadening of the activities of terrorists,” the Israeli Defence minister, Ehud Barak, said in a statement.
“The real source of the terror is in Gaza and we will act against them with full force and determination.”
Security in Sinai area has been deteriorated since February, when Hosni Mubarak was toppled.
The new attack comes just a week after the Egyptian army said it was about to launch an operation in Sinai to target what it described as “al-Qaeda elements” on the Egyptian side of the border, where they had attacked a gas pipeline.
A senior security official from Egypt denied that the assailants crossed into Israel from Sinai or that the buses were fired at from inside Egyptian territory.
“The border is heavily guarded,” said a Sinai-based official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
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