Occupied Jerusalem: Two teenage Palestinian girls stabbed and lightly wounded an elderly man in occupied Jerusalem on Monday before the occupation’s police opened fire killing one of them in the latest in almost two months of violence.
The attack was the first in occupied Jerusalem in nearly two weeks after the majority of attacks targeting Israelis had shifted to the southern West Bank, where the army on Monday barred Palestinians from entering a large bloc of Jewish colonies.
The girls aged 14 and 16 used scissors to stab the 70-year-old man near the Mahane Yehuda market in the centre of occupied Jerusalem, police said.
The victim was later identified as a Palestinian from the West Bank, possibly mistaken for an Israeli Jew.
He was admitted to hospital with minor injuries to the head and back, the Hadassah hospital said.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said “an officer who observed the event approached, fired accurately and neutralised the terrorists.”
The 16-year-old was killed, the 14-year-old seriously wounded.
A 27-year-old Israeli security guard was also taken to hospital with an injury to his hand, apparently from shrapnel caused by the gunshots, a Hadassah spokeswoman said.
Mahane Yehuda is occupied Jerusalem’s best known market and a popular tourist attraction.
Later, a Palestinian attempted to stab an Israeli in the northern West Bank but was shot dead by soldiers before causing any harm, the army said.
The assailant attempted to stab an Israeli near the Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus, an army spokeswoman said.
“Forces responded to the immediate threat and fired at the suspect, resulting in his death,” she added.
Meanwhile in the northern West Bank, a motorist hit an Israeli near the Shavei Shomron colony in what may have been a deliberate attack, the regime’s army said.
“The civilian is lightly wounded and being evacuated to a hospital for further medical treatment. Forces are currently in pursuit of the driver who fled the scene,” a statement said.
In the southern West Bank, the army prohibited Palestinians from entering 24 Jewish colonies after an Israeli woman was stabbed to death at a road junction in the area on Sunday.
Monday’s restriction applied to the 22 colonies in the Gush Etzion colony bloc, as well as the nearby colony towns of Efrat and Beitar Ilit, where an estimated 2,000 Palestinians work.
Gush Etzion, Efrat and Beitar Illit are home to some 92,000 Israeli colonists.
Palestinians were being allowed to travel on the area’s roads but not enter the colonies, which are gated and guarded, a military spokeswoman said, without being able to say how long the measure would be in place.
Etzion junction, where 21-year-old Hadar Buchris was killed on Sunday, also saw a shooting on Thursday in which an American, an Israeli and a Palestinian were killed.
There have also been other stabbings and attempted attacks against Israelis in Gush Etzion, which lies between occupied Jerusalem and the flashpoint city of Hebron, a focal point of the recent violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered additional security measures in Hebron to halt what he has called “terrorism by individuals, occasionally with kitchen knives, who are incited mainly by social media.”
The regime’s army detained 15 suspects in overnight raids in and around Hebron, Palestinian security sources said.
Regime troops have set up additional checkpoints around the city where some 500 Jewish colonists live under tight guard among around 200,000 Palestinians, a constant source of tension.
Monday’s stabbing was the latest in a wave of violence since October 1 that has left 90 Palestinians dead, as well as 16 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.
Over half of the Palestinians killed have been alleged attackers, while others were shot during demonstrations and clashes with Israeli security forces, including along the Gaza border.
