|
JERUSALEM, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Israeli police said Monday they shot two Palestinian "terrorists" in the West Bank, killing one and critically wounding the other, after the pair allegedly tried to stab security personnel.
The incident took place near a checkpoint outside a flashpoint holy site in Hebron amidst a resurgence in Palestinian unrest. The site is known to Muslims as Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the "Cave of the Patriarchs."
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the men approached paramilitary Border Police and pulled out a knife at them. "The Border Police officers opened fire toward the terrorists," she said, adding that as a result of the fire, one man was dead, and the other sustained severe injuries.
Samri said no Israelis were injured in the incident.
Israeli authorities said the incident was the seventh attack against Israelis since Friday. It came after a lull of almost a month in Palestinian attacks.
The resurgence of violence started on Friday, when Israeli police shot and killed a Jordanian citizen after he allegedly tried to stab police officers outside East Jerusalem's Old City, according to the police.
A spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, Sabah Rafi, refuted the Israeli narrative, saying the victim was with a group of tourists from Jordan.
"The Jordanian government is following up the case to look into all details and to hand over the body of the martyr to his family in preparation to take international legal and diplomatic procedures," Rafi said.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the parliament speaker to act to prevent lawmakers and government ministers from going up to the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem ahead of the Jewish high holidays next week.
Violence since mid-September has claimed the lives of at least 230 Palestinians and 34 Israelis. Israel says that most of the Palestinians were killed amidst stabbing, car-ramming, and shooting attacks.
The Palestinians and human rights organizations say that Israel is using excessive force to quell the uprising, and in many cases kill Palestinians who could be stopped without using lethal force or were mistaken to be attackers.
Israeli leaders accuse the Palestinian National Authority of "inciting" the unrest, while the Palestinians say it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, home to more than 5 million Palestinians, where they wish to establish their state.
