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No stop to bloodshed between Israelis, Palestinians

October 12, 2015

Fears of an uprising have continued to mount, more than a week after a new round of violence erupted around Jerusalem. Leaders at the center of the conflict have begun to fire accusations at each other.

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Palestinian in the West Bank
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Momani

Violent incidents between Israelis and Palestinians continued unabated on Monday, as concern grew among leaders in the region that the situation was spiraling out of control.

At least three more stabbing attacks directed at Israelis were reported on Monday. In the first incident, a Palestinian man attempted to stab a police officer near the Old City in eastern Jerusalem but was shot dead before he could injure his target.

In the second incident, a Palestinian woman stabbed another police officer, injuring him, before being shot and wounded. In the third incident, two Israeli teenagers were wounded by a pair of knife-wielding Palestinians.

Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki told the AFP news agency that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu wanted "to instigate a third intifada" - or Palestinian uprising - and had violated "the status quo" regarding East Jerusalem's al-Aqsa compound.

Known to the Jews as the Temple Mount, the site has been at the center of the recent violence after a series of clashes between protestors and Israeli authorities.

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied such claims. Speaking to Parliament on Monday, he emphasized that the wave of knife stabbings targeting Jews was an effort to terrorize Israelis.

'Terror does not pay'

The violence escalated on October 1, when an Israeli settler couple was shot dead in the West Bank. That was followed by a spate of knife attacks against both Israelis and Palestinians, and increasingly violent protests around Gaza, which led the Netanyahu administration to ramp up its security forces in the West Bank and on the border with Gaza. On Sunday, Israel launched an airstrike on Gaza after Hamas fired rockets into Israel.

At least 25 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100 wounded in the unrest that has spilled across the country. Meanwhile, there have been at least 18 instances of knife attacks targeting Jews since the first incident, according to the AFP.

Netanyahu said he sees no "magic solution" to the conflict, while insisting he will defeat those forces responsible for the carnage.

"We will prove that terror does not pay and we will defeat it," he said.

blc/bk (AFP, AP, dpa)