JERUSALEM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday "demanded" the Palestinian National Authority condemn the coordinated attacks in Jerusalem which claimed the life of a woman border police on Friday.
"The Prime Minister demands that the Palestinian Authority condemn the attack and expects the international community to do so too," read a statement issued by the prime minister's office.
Netanyahu is also considering making the area around the flashpoint Damascus Gate, where the attacks took place, a "sterile zone" that bans Palestinian entries, according to the statement.
Damascus Gate is adjacent to the wall of the East Jerusalem's Old City, a busy area with predominate Palestinian presence. Many of the recent Palestinian attacks in Jerusalem took place in this area.
The move came after three assailants, armed with knives and a homemade automatic weapon, carried out simultaneous attacks at two locations near Damascus Gate on Friday evening.
Border Police Chief Sergeant Hadas Malka was stabbed to death.
The assailants, all from the West Bank village of Deir Abu-Mashal near Ramallah, were shot and killed by the police.
In the wake of the attacks, Israel canceled permits allowing Palestinians to visit their families in Israel during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Entry permits for prayers in Israel were not revoked, according to a statement by the Israeli military coordinator office.
The army raided Deir Abu-Mashal and imposed a closure on the area, according to local reports. The Hebrew-language news site of Ynet reported that army forces have started to map the family homes of the attackers in order to demolish them as a punitive measure.
The incidents were the latest in a wave of violence that has claimed the lives of at least 250 Palestinians, 41 Israelis, two Jordanian tourists, two U.S. nationals, two refugees from Sudan and Eritrea and a British tourist since mid-September 2015.
