INTERNATIONAL

Two Palestinians were shot dead and another was wounded in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem on Sunday, officials said, the latest incidents in a spate of violence.

The deaths, along with the stabbing of a policeman in Jerusalem, came hours after Israeli forces caught two Palestinians suspected of killing three people in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town of Elad on Israel’s Independence Day last Thursday.

Israel’s army said that the shooting of a Palestinian on Sunday occurred after “soldiers spotted a suspect who attempted to illegally cross the security fence” in the area of the West Bank town of Tulkarm.

A spokesman for the Sheba hospital in central Israel told AFP the Palestinian had died of his wounds, with the Palestinian health ministry identifying the deceased as Mahmud Eram.

Hours later, the army said a civilian shot a Palestinian carrying a knife who had broken into the Tekoa settlement in the West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the Palestinian as Motasem Attalah, 17.

Also on Sunday, Israeli police said a Palestinian stabbed one of their officers outside Jerusalem’s Old City and was shot. Both were being treated for their wounds.

The killing of three people in Elad on Thursday had led to a three-day manhunt by Israeli forces for two assailants carrying axes who had run through the town, some 15km north of Tel Aviv.

Two men, identified as residents of a village near Jenin in the West Bank, were captured on Sunday over the deaths in a forest near Elad, the Israeli army said.

Photos of the two, who appeared to be unhurt, and of Israeli security men with guns pointed at their hiding place, were carried by Israeli news websites after they were taken into custody.

Repeated reads

Israel has carried out repeated arrest raids in Palestinian towns and villages, bringing the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year to at least 41.

The casualties include armed members of militant groups, lone assailants and bystanders.

Hamas, which governs the besieged Gaza Strip, had praised the Elad assault, which it said was a response to recent Israeli raids on al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Palestinians and Jordan, the custodian of the site that is the third-holiest in Islam, accuse Israel of not doing enough to enforce a long-standing ban on non-Muslim prayer there, which Israel denies.

Source: Middle East Eye