Two Palestinians and an Israeli were killed in a series of attacks and clashes in the West Bank on Friday, in the latest uptick in the nine-month wave of violence.Thousands of Muslims have turned out at East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.
Since dawn, large numbers of Palestinian worshipers from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem -- and from Arab villages inside Israel -- have converged on Al-Aqsa, which for Muslims represents the world’s third holiest site.
Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, director-general of religious endowments and Al-Aqsa affairs, told Anadolu Agency that some 280,000 Palestinian worshipers had come to the site to pray on Ramadan’s last Friday.
Al-Khatib added that around 200,000 worshipers were expected to remain in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to commemorate Laylat al-Qadr, one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar.
Only men over 45 and children under 12 -- along with women of all ages -- were allowed by the Israeli authorities to enter occupied East Jerusalem without entry permits.
Israel has stepped up security in and around the flashpoint mosque compound, deploying some 4,000 soldiers and setting up roadblocks at the entrances of Jerusalem's Old City.
At the Qalandia checkpoint, meanwhile, Israeli forces used teargas to disperse Palestinians attempting to enter East Jerusalem.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Tayseer Habash, a 63-year-old Palestinian, died after inhaling excessive amounts of teargas, while another 40 suffered temporary asphyxia.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement building on the land to be illegal.
The killings follow two attacks on Thursday. At least 214 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed since the violence erupted last October.
An Israeli man was killed and three family members were wounded on Friday when a suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire on their car south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the army said.
A woman and 14-year-old girl were taken to hospital in a serious condition, as was a lightly wounded 15-year-old boy.
The shooting came shortly after the Palestinian health ministry said a man had died from tear gas fired by Israeli forces elsewhere in the territory.
Journalists at the Qalandia crossing between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Israeli-held east Jerusalem said Palestinians waiting to cross to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound began throwing stones at Israeli security forces who responded with tear gas and sponge-tipped bullets.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the dead man as Tayseer Habbash, 63, from the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
It was the last Friday of Ramazan, when worshippers flock to Al-Aqsa compound for midday prayers.
A mosque spokesman said that 280,000 people attended and he expected more in the evening.
Earlier on Friday, a young Palestinian woman was killed at a security checkpoint at an entrance to the Hebron shrine known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs.
She aroused the suspicion of border police and was taken aside for a “thorough check” when she “suddenly drew a knife and tried to stab the policewoman who was searching her”, a police statement read.
Another officer shot the Palestinian dead. Palestinian security officials named her as Sarah Tarayra, 27, a relative of Mohammed Nasser Tarayra, 19, who on Thursday fatally stabbed 13-year-old US-Israeli national Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her home at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba adjoining Hebron.
Mohammed Tarayra was shot dead by settlement security guards. Both he and Sarah Tarayra were from the nearby Palestinian village of Bani Naim.
Tags:
International