Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli security guards shot dead a Palestinian who allegedly ran towards them with a knife near Occupied Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday, shortly after two Palestinian boys stabbed a guard on a tram nearby, the regime’s police said.
Israel and the Palestinian territories are experiencing the worst wave of violence since the 2014 Gaza war, with Palestinians calling for a knife “intifada”, or uprising, against Israel.
Seventy-three Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli security forces since October 1, including 44 people the regime said were carrying out attacks. Many of the assailants have been teenagers.
Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri claimed that two Palestinians, aged 12 to 13, stabbed a security guard on a light-rail train in Pisgat Zeev, a Jews-only colony north of Jerusalem. The guard shot back at them.
A hospital spokeswoman said one boy was seriously wounded.
Police said the other was taken into custody. Israel Radio said that passengers helped overcome the two youths.
A few minutes later, two security guards shot a 37-year-old Palestinian holding a knife as he ran towards them, Samri claimed.
The hospital where he was taken said he later died of his wounds.
A Palestinian bystander was wounded in the shooting, Samri added.
The violence over the past six weeks has in part been fuelled by an increase in Jewish visits to a Jerusalem site that is holy to both Muslims and Jews.
In addition, Palestinians are frustrated as US-backed peace efforts have stalled and Israel’s 48-year occupation of the West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem shows no signs of ending. Gaza, ruled by Hamas which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, is under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
The Palestinians seek an independent state in occupied east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, which were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
On Monday, US President Barack Obama met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks in Washington, their first meeting in 13 months.
