A Palestinian man has killed two Israelis in Jerusalem and wounded two others. The attacker was himself shot dead by police. The attack happened on Saturday in Jerusalem’s Old City. A Palestinian man attacked an Israeli family, fatally stabbing the father and another man, while wounding a mother and child.
A police spokeswoman said the attacker took a gun from one of the wounded men and opened fire at police and tourists, before being shot and killed by an Israeli police officer. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, praised the attack as “heroic” in a statement. There have been recent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians over the use of the Old City’s Temple Mount, Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, and which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque – Islam’s third-holiest site.
On Thursday, an Israeli couple was shot dead by suspected Palestinian gunmen in front of their children as they drove in the West Bank. The attacks also follow a hard-line speech at the United Nations last week by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said Israel’s refusal to release prisoners and stop settlement activity was hampering fresh peace talks.
