WEST BANK: Israeli police killed a 16-year-old Palestinian near the West Bank separation barrier on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said, while in Jerusalem’s Old City, an alleged Palestinian attacker was killed after stabbing and injuring two Israelis, according to the Israeli police.
The outbreak of violence came as tens of thousands of worshippers were flocking to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque for noon prayers on the last Friday in the holy fasting month of Ramzan.
Israeli police shot and killed 16-year-old Abdullah Ghaith near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Palestinian ministry said, adding that another 21-year-old Palestinian was wounded by a live bullet to the stomach.
The police said that the Palestinian teenager was shot while attempting to climb over the heavily guarded separation barrier from Bethlehem into Jerusalem. The police added that they were launching a probe into the incident.
The boy’s father, Louai Ghaith, said his son had been trying to enter Jerusalem to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque for the holy day. Ghaith’s body was brought to a Bethlehem hospital, where his family identified him.
“He was going to fulfill his religious duty, he was going to worship,” Ghaith said. “They killed him… with a bullet to his heart, like a game, and 16 years I’ve been raising him.”
The COGAT, the Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said it eases tight movement restrictions on Palestinian residents of the West Bank traveling to Jerusalem for Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Women of all ages can enter for the occasion, as well as men over the age of 40 who undergo a background check. Younger Palestinian men must request an entry permit from the military, which are difficult to obtain.
In a separate event, Israeli police said they shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian suspected of carrying out two stabbings near Damascus Gate, a bustling main entrance to the predominantly Palestinian part of the Old City.
Police said one Israeli was in critical condition, while the second was in moderate condition. The suspect, police added, was shot by security forces while running through the Old City’s Muslim quarter.
The stabbings occurred just hours before busloads of Muslim worshippers were to arrive from both Israel and the West Bank for Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, located in the Old City.
In other countries across the Mideast, rallies were taken out on Friday to mark Quds, or Jerusalem Day, an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramazan. This year’s protests come as the Trump administration is pushing an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan whose details remain unknown.
On Sunday, Israel marks its own ‘Jerusalem Day,’ when it celebrates capturing the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war and annexing it. Tensions run high during the holiday, as a nationalist Israeli marches pass through Damascus Gate and the Muslim quarter.
Israeli police said the area would be heavily patrolled to keep the parade from erupting into violence, as has happened in the past.
Most of the international community has not recognised Israel’s annexation of the eastern part of the city, which the Palestinians claim as their capital for a future state.
Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam, after the cities of Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia.
