Roundup: Palestinian barred from Jerusalem Old City as violent thrives

Israeli police on Sunday barred the entry of Palestinians to Jerusalem's Old City for two days, as violence thrives between Israelis and Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In an unprecedented move, entry into the Old City will be permitted only for "Israeli citizens, Old City residents, tourists, Old City business owners and students learning there," according to a police statement.

Jerusalem's Old City is home to several key religious sites, including the al-Aqsa mosque and Temple Mount complex (or Noble Sanctuary) as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The police also decided to limit access for Muslim worshippers to al-Aqsa Mosque, allowing those aged 50 and above to enter the site in the upcoming days.

Israel had in the past limit on the age of worshippers in order to prevent youngsters who may provoke more violence from entering the site that is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

An Israeli was stabbed before dawn Sunday in Jerusalem and suffered moderate injuries, while Israeli police shot dead the Palestinian attacker.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also arrested two of the attacker's relatives in the Arab neighborhood of Issawiya, in East Jerusalem.

Hours before, two Israelis were killed on Saturday night in a stabbing attack in east Jerusalem, and two others were injured. The incident took place two days after another two Israelis were shot dead in a shooting attack on a West Bank road on Thursday night.

The army said on Sunday that one of the victims, Aharon Banita, 21, who was killed on Saturday night in Jerusalem's Old City, was an IDF soldier.

Clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers, and between the Palestinians and Israeli security forces, took place shortly after these attacks, which may mark the beginning of a third intifada (armed uprising), prompting more security measures by Israeli forces.

After the attack in a West Bank road on Thursday, which killed Eitam and Na'ama Henkin east of Nablus, the Israeli military deployed four battalions around Nablus, where they operated to catch the perpetrator who fled the scene. Seven Palestinians were arrested in an overnight operation.

In addition, Palestinian villages in the area of Nablus were placed under siege on Thursday night, for the first time in several years, in attempt to arrest the perpetrators of the attack.

An elite Israeli military unit arrested two wanted persons in Jenin in the West Bank early Sunday and seized weapons.

Palestinian sources reported one of the arrested is a top Hamas operative. Palestinian media outlets reported that more than a dozen Palestinians were wounded in clashes in Jenin with the Israeli military.

Palestinian youths and Jewish extreme right-wingers continued to clash on Saturday throughout Jerusalem in local incidents as well. An Arab driver was attacked by Jewish youths in Jerusalem, suffering light wounds. Another Palestinian man was pepper sprayed by Jewish teens and lightly wounded.

The Israeli Reshet Bet Radio channel reported that five Jewish teens were lightly injured at night from stone thrown throughout the West Bank.

With that, the political echelon in Israel is considering its next steps. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will return to Israel on Sunday afternoon after spending the week in the United States, will convene top members of his government to discuss the security escalation and ways of handling it.

Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told Army Radio on Sunday morning that a "wide-scale operation may be needed to counter the recent wave of deadly attacks," adding there might be a need to a "second defensive shield," referring to a 2002 military operation in the West Bank that Israel conducted after a wave of deadly militant attacks.

Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced in front of members of the United Nations that the Palestinian Authority could no longer comply with agreements signed with Israel in the past 20 years, and that it can no longer continue to self-govern in the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, as Israel does not fulfill its end of the bargain.

Israel occupied the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War. The Palestinians seek to establish a Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital, on those territories.

According to the 1993 Oslo Accords, which Abbas withdrew from last week, the Palestinian Authority controls the Palestinian population in some territories and coordinates its security activity with the Israeli security forces.

However, it is not clear what will be the status of the coordination following Abbas' speech, as he did not specify the exact measures he will pursue.

Tensions escalated in the past month with daily clashes surrounding Temple Mount, as Muslims fear Jews trying to take over the site and push them out of it, as well a throughout the West Bank, as peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are nonexistent since 2014 and amid the ongoing expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands. Endit