The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
On Friday evening, a Palestinian broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank during a Sabbath dinner and stabbed four Israelis, killing three of them.
The Israeli army said the 19-year-old Palestinian had spoken in a Facebook post of the Jerusalem holy site and of dying as a martyr.
There were further clashes on Saturday, when Palestinian youths hurled stones and petrol bombs as the army used a bulldozer to close off the attacker’s West Bank village and prepare his house for probable demolition.
Israel frequently razes or seals attackers’ homes as a deterrent, although rights groups say this amounts to collective punishment.
Clashes also flared in east Jerusalem and other Palestinian villages in the West Bank near Jerusalem on Saturday, police said.
Two Palestinians died during the clashes, including one when a petrol bomb exploded prematurely.
– Hamas arrests –
Israeli security forces said Sunday they had arrested 25 men active in the militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip.
The arrests throughout the West Bank included “senior members”, a statement from the Shin Bet internal security agency said, and was part of preventive measures in the wake of “the tensions around the Temple Mount”.
Also Sunday, a rocket fired at Israel from Gaza exploded mid-air, the Israeli army said, causing no injuries. No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rocket.
The holy site in Jerusalem has served as a rallying cry for Palestinians.
In 2000, then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon’s visit to the compound helped ignite the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which lasted more than four years.
The Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It is in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.
It is considered the third holiest site in Islam and the most sacred for Jews.
