JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police took the unprecedented step of preventing Palestinian residents of Jerusalem from entering the walled Old City on Sunday after two Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis.
A Palestinian teenager stabbed and wounded a 15-year-old Israeli before dawn Sunday before being shot dead by police, Israeli police said. The attack came hours after a Palestinian teenager fatally stabbed two Israelis in Jerusalem's Old City and wounded a woman and a toddler, before he was shot dead by an Israeli police officer.
Tensions have soared over access to a sensitive holy site within the Old City that is sacred to Jews and Muslims. Israeli police and Palestinian demonstrators have clashed repeatedly at the hilltop compound in recent weeks, and the unrest has spread to the West Bank, where clashes erupted Sunday during an Israeli arrest raid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would meet with security officials Sunday to decide upon a "harsh offensive on Palestinian Islamic terror," according to a statement on his Facebook page. "We are in an all-out war against terror," Netanyahu said in the post.
Relatives of the teen behind Sunday's attack identified him as Fadi Alloun, 19, from Arab East Jerusalem. Yesterday, he wrote on his Facebook page: "Either martyrdom or victory."
Israeli police said they are preventing Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem from entering the Old City for two days during a Jewish holiday to prevent violence. Palestinians who live, work and study within the Old City, as well as Israelis and tourists, will be allowed in.
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