Teen killed as clashes continue between Palestinians, Israelis

Palestinians clashed on Monday with Israeli police and soldiers for the second day in a row in Jerusalem and the West Bank, where a Palestinian boy was shot to death during confrontations near Bethlehem.

The confrontations, though less intense than the day before, resumed during the afternoon in several areas. Jerusalem’s Old City remained closed to Palestinians for a second day.

In Bethlehem, medics at Beit Jala hospital said 13-year-old Abdul Rahman Shadi Obeidallah was shot in the chest during a clash near Rachel’s Tomb on the northern end of the biblical city and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said violent demonstrations were taking place throughout the area of Rachel’s Tomb and confirmed the army used small .22-caliber munitions to “limit the threats” that included Molotov cocktails.

“The results we have to look into,” he said, adding that the army was investigating the incident of the boy’s death.

Obeidallah was the second Palestinian shot to death in the West Bank during two days of confrontations.

Meanwhile, police continued to bar most Palestinians from entering Jerusalem’s Old City, while allowing free passage through the barricades set up around the main gates to Israeli citizens, Old City residents and tourists.

Police also barred Muslim men younger than 50 from entering the area’s Al Aqsa mosque, leaving only a handful of worshipers inside. The mosque compound was opened to visitors, including Jewish groups.

In Beit Hanina, a East Jerusalem suburb, police shot and critically wounded a Palestinian man during demonstrations. He was taken to Makased hospital in East Jerusalem with a bullet wound to the chest, underwent surgery and was reported in stable condition.

Confrontations were reported near Ramallah, where Palestinian threw rocks at Israeli soldiers at Qalandia checkpoint to the south of the city and at a checkpoint to the north.

Palestinians also clashed with soldiers in the West Bank cities of Hebron, Nablus and Tulkarm. A number of Palestinians were treated for gas inhalation or wounds caused by rubber bullets, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas summoned an urgent meeting for his security officials in Ramallah on Monday night.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned Sunday from a visit to the United States, also convened his security cabinet Monday evening to discuss ways of countering the ongoing violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank that has left seven Israelis dead since June.

Ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu commended the intelligence services for carrying out arrests in the attack that killed Eitam and Naama Henkin, a Jewish couple slain in the West Bank on Thursday while driving in the car with their four young children.

Earlier Monday, the military announced that the army had arrested the five members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas it said were responsible for the attack.

According to Lerner, the army spokesman, the group was organized in planning, scouting the location and carrying out the attack, although the settler family’s car was a random target.

After gunfire brought the car to a halt, two cell members shot the couple at close range. One Palestinian accidentally shot another attacker, injuring him and causing him to drop his handgun at the scene.

Lerner confirmed that one of the attackers was arrested in a Nablus hospital where he was treated for his gun wound.

“We are acting with a strong hand against terrorism and against inciters,” Netanyahu said Monday, noting that four additional battalions were recently deployed in the West Bank, as well as thousands of police in Jerusalem.

The cabinet was expected to approve measures including stepping up demolition of militants’ homes and taking harsher action against firebomb and rock attacks.

“There are not restrictions on the actions of our security forces,” said Netanyahu, adding that actions would be taken against the Palestinian Authority, which he accused of being the “main source of incitement.”

The weeks-long wave of violence, aggravated by tensions over the Al Aqsa mosque and fierce diplomatic tension between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, have fed concern in Israel of a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

“We don’t see a substantial increase in the volume of participation, but the riots are more violent,” Lerner said.

Despite Abbas’ declaration last week at the United Nations that the Palestinians would no longer uphold the Oslo accords if Israel did not, security coordination with the Palestinian Authority remains ongoing, according to Lerner, who said the army’s assessment was that it would continue as long as there was a “mutual interest.”

The additional army battalions deployed in the West Bank after the attack that killed the Henkins would stay for the next few days to “maintain potential hot spots” and arrest suspects planning attacks, Lerner said.

As the security cabinet convened, thousands demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence Monday in protest of what they called the government’s “helplessness against terror.” Since Thursday’s attack, settlement mayors and supporters have staged a sit-in by the prime minister’s residence to demand increased security for Jews in the West Bank.

Israeli media reported that the security crisis has led Netanyahu to shorten next week’s planned visit to Germany, where members of both governments are scheduled to hold a special meeting as part of events marking 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Special correspondents Abukhater reported from Ramallah and Sobelman from Jerusalem.