17 arrested as clashes spill over to Israeli Arab cities

Seventeen Arab Israelis were arrested by Israeli police as violent clashes spread to Israeli Arab cities on Wednesday, despite calls for calm on both Palestinian and Israeli sides.

In Lod, an impoverished mixed Arab-Jewish city near Tel Aviv, dozens of Arab Israelis rallied, waving Palestinian flags and calling to "protect" the holy compound, while dozens of Jews rallied in front of them, waving Israeli flags.

A police spokesperson said the rally turned violent as "some protesters started to hurl stones at police. One officer was slightly wounded. The Police dispersed the demonstration and five protesters were arrested."

In a separate rally in Um al-Fahem, a major Arab city in northern Israel, seven protesters were arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at police. No injuries were reported.

The protest started to spread into Israel late Tuesday night, as a demonstration in Jaffa, a city in the southern part of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality, turned violent after police arrived to disperse it.

Five Arab Isarelis in Jaffa were arrested on Wednesday for vandalism and for wounding police officers in the ensuing clashes.

Israeli media reported that the demonstration was organized by the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, an Arab-Israeli hardliner group. They waved Palestinian flags and chanted, "With spirit, with blood, we will redeem al-Aqsa mosque."

"Protesters, some masked, threw stones at police and assaulted and injured six officers," a police spokesperson said in a statement. Israel's Ynet news site reported that protestors also hurled stones at a bus that passed in the city, smashing its windows but causing no injuries.

Molotov cocktails were thrown at Road 6, Israel's main highway, near the Arab city of Tirah in central Israel. No injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, two people were lightly injured after a Palestinian driver rammed his car into a West Bank checkpoint east of Jerusalem Wednesday night, the latest in a series of attacks throughout the day.

The driver was shot by a border policeman and injured during the incident at the A'zaim checkpoint, between the Ma'ale Adumim settlement and Jerusalem, police said.

Earlier Wednesday, Palestinians perpetrated two stabbing attacks, the first time such incidents took place outside Jerusalem and the West Bank during the recent wave of violence.

At noon, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier on a bus, injuring him slightly and grabbing his personal weapon, before he was shot dead by police in the southern city of Kiryat Gat, the military said.

The suspect was identified as Amjad al-Jundy from the West Bank city of Hebron, who entered Israel without permits.

In the evening, a Palestinian stabbed and slightly injured a 25-year-old Israeli man at a mall in Petah Tikvah city in central Israel.

The suspect is a 30-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank, who arrived at the mall on a bus and stabbed the first person he saw. He was arrested and taken into custody.

Tensions were triggered by an increasing number of Jewish visitors to the al-Aqsa compound during the Jewish high holy days, and statements by far-right political leaders, who call the government to lift restrictions on Jewish prayers at the site.

The hilltop compound is the third holiest site to Muslims, who revered it as the Noble Sanctuary, and the holiest site for Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount. Enditem