Two dead in Jerusalem as Palestinian-Israeli violence rages

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli security forces shot dead two Palestinians in East Jerusalem on Saturday, one of whom had stabbed two Israelis, police said, in a further wave of violence that has raised concerns about a new Palestinian uprising.

Police said two ultra-Orthodox Jewish men were wounded in the knife attack by a 16-year-old Palestinian near Jerusalem’s walled Old City. Earlier, paramilitary police shot dead a militant who had opened fire at them during late-night clashes at the Palestinian Shuafat refugee camp, police said.

Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian militant group which controls the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that the Shuafat shooter was one of its members. “The hero martyr fought the Israeli occupation with language they understand,” Hamas said.

Tensions have surged in 11 days of violence in which four Israelis and 17 Palestinians – including several Palestinians shot by police, have been killed in Jerusalem, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gaza and in Israeli cities.

Scores of Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli troops and at least 12 Israelis have been wounded in almost daily Palestinian stabbing attacks.

The violence has been fueled by Palestinian fears that visits by Jewish groups, including lawmakers, to the Jerusalem Old City plaza revered in Judaism as the site of two destroyed biblical temples are eroding Muslim religious control of the al-Aqsa mo