LIVE BLOG: The Third Intifada - the unrest continues
Here's a summary of the latest developments as Israeli-Palestinians tensions rise:
- On Saturday three Palestinian teenagers, incluing one woman, were shot dead in theree separate incidents after reportedly attempting to stab Israelis in Hebron and East Jerusalem.
- Early Friday, hundreds of Palestinian youths attacked a site in Nablus - the exact target of the attack remains disputed
- A Palestinian man was shot dead in Hebron after stabbing and wounding an Israeli police officer
- Three Palestinian protesters shot dead by Israeli soldiers - two at the Gaza border and one in Nablus - with clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces also reported in East Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah and Hebron. Another Palestinian who was shot in Gaza protests last week has died of his wounds.
- UN Security Council scheduled to hold an emergency meeting at 1500 GMT to discuss the upsurge of violence
- Israeli forces shot and injured three Palestinian protesters with live fire the central occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday, while one young man was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet in his eye and is in moderate to serious condition.
Live Updates
Israeli forces on Saturday detained the parents and two brothers of a Palestinian teen killed by Israeli forces earlier in the day in East Jerusalem.
Locals told Ma'an News that masked Israeli soldiers, intelligence, and special forces raided the home of 16-year-old Muataz Uweisat who had allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli policeman in the East Talpiot settlement.
The forces stood on rooftops, held residents, and prevented locals from approaching the house during the raid carried out in the Jabal al-Mukabbir neighborhood.
Witnesses said that Israeli forces searched the home and took photos before detaining four members of the Uweisat family.
Mufid Sharbati, a Hebron resident and eyewitness to the shooting and killing of Palestinian teen Fadel al Qawasmeh on Saturday morning was detained by Israeli forces hours after the incident.
Israeli forces raided Sharbati's home and confiscated a laptop, a video camera, and a photo camera, reported Ma'an News agency.
Israeli forces also detained the media coordinator of Youth Against Settlements, Ahmad Amr, hours after the group released video footage captured directly after an Israeli settler shot dead Qawasmeh in Hebron.
The Youth Against Settlement group told Ma'an that that photographers in the group had documented the shooting and killing of 18-year-old Qawasmeh.
The footage which showed the Israeli soldiers laying what is believed to be a knife on Qawasmeh's dead body raised speculations about the authenticity of the claims made against the teen.
The woman shot dead in Hebron on Saturday after allegedly trying to stab a female Israeli soldier has been identified as 17-year-old Bayan al-Esseili.
A photo taken by activists in Hebron shows Esseili lying lifeless after being shot dead.
Three residents of Ramle, Israel were arrested after a gun was found in a car crossing the Trans-Samaria Highway, reported Haaretz on Saturday.
A Palestinian woman who allegedly attempted to stab a female Israeli soldier in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday was shot dead by the Israeli soldier, Israeli police said.
The soldier was guarding the settler enclave in the heart of the city, where some 500 Jews live under heavy protection surrounded by nearly 200,000 Palestinians. She suffered minor injuries to her hand, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
This is the second incident in Hebron after 18-year-old Fadel al Qawasmeh was shot dead early Satruday morning.
Speculation has been raised regarding the alleged involvement of Fadel al Qawasmeh in an attack in Hebron Saturday after video footage captured following his death reportedly shows Israeli soldiers handing off an object and placing it by his body.
Observers have alleged that the object is believed to be a knife planted on the scene.
The allegations have not yet been confirmed.
Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli military forces clashed on Saturday shortly after three Palestinians were killed during reported stabbing attacks.
Clashes erupted between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces at the entrance of Shuhada Street and the Bab al-Zawiya area in central Hebron after an Israeli settler shot and killed Fadil Qawasmi.
Dozens of Palestinian youths threw rocks at Israeli soldiers who responded with rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas bombs, reported Ma'an News.
Bayan al-Esseil, 17, was also killed in the Hebron area on Saturday after stabbing an Israeli border police woman in the hand.
The Fatah movement in Hebron declared a day of mourning and several shop owners closed their shops in honor of those killed.
Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, a march set off from Al-Quds Open University in the Wadi Abu Kteila area in north Gaza.
The march, organised by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, ended at the Erez crossing where Palestinians and Israeli forces clashed.
A Palestinian woman has reportedly been shot by Israeli soldiers in Hebron.
Palestine's top diplomat at the UN asked the Security Council on Friday to consider providing international protection for Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
Riyad Mansour told an emergency session that the Council must "shoulder its responsibility in maintaining international peace and security" and "urgently intervene to end this aggression".
"We call upon you once again ... to deal seriously and urgently with the question of providing international protection for our people," he said.
David Roet, Israel's ambassador to the UN, told a meeting of the UN security council that he was dismayed that there was “no call for the Palestinian leadership to stop their incitement.”
Israelis “fear for the lives of their children every time they walk out of their door," he said.
"This tide of terror has washed over the entire nation and spares no-one."
He called for support for the “silent victims of Palestinian terror" and said that Israel was "taking every necessary means to defend its citizens and is responding proportionately to these attacks.”
He accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of spreading "lies" about the Al-Aqsa mosque/Temple Mount.
"Palestinian leaders have repeated this outlandish conspiracy theory over and over again," he said, referring to accusations that Israel was looking to allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.
“Palestinian leaders are determined to erase Jewish history and deny any connection between the Jewish people and our holiest site," he added, citing the allged attack on Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank as a “desecration and a blatant violation of freedom of worship.”
However, he said that Israel would "not agree to any international presence on the Temple Mount” saying it would be a violation of the status quo.
He said that only "direction negotiation" could lead to a lasting peace.
Samantha Power, US's UN ambassador, has urged both sides to end escalations and called for calm.
In comments made to the UN Security Council, Power said that mistrust was being "exacerbated" by images being shared on social media.
She said that the US was committed to retaining the status quo at al-Aqsa mosque, known as Temple Mount to Jews.
US President Barack Obama will now visit the region at the "appropriate" moment, she added.
As night began to fall on Ramallah and the Beit El settlement hundreds of protestors continued to march in the streets, MEE contributor Elia Ghorbiah on the ground said.
She said that protests first began to march from the Albeira Mosque in the southern entrance of the city near the flashpoint Beit El settlement.
According to Ghorbiah live fire was fired into the crowd that threw stones at Israeli soldiers. At least 12 Palestinians were injured, including nine who were hit with live ammunition, medical sources said.
A young protestor told MEE: "There is no other option but this, we have no freedom; we have no peace we are confined to this situation. Palestine will be free by us and with our street resistance."
Following the call from Hamas and Islamic Jihad for a “day of rage”, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza Strip have protested along the border with Israel on Friday. Two Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces, and one who was injured by Israeli forces last week has died of his wounds, local media has reported.
Regularly for the past week, dozens, sometimes hundreds of people have been gathering in the border area, east of the Shujiaiya neighberhood in Gaza City, reaching as close as 50 meters from the border fence.
On Friday, after the noon prayers, people started to gather at entrance of a road leading to the border area where protests have been taking place. Despite the earlier call for demonstrations, local security forces tried to prevent people from demonstrating near the border fence in eastern Shujjaiya. “We are not stopping anyone from protesting. But we are concerned for the safety of our citizens. Since additional Israeli soldiers have been placed along the border, especially in Nahal Oz area, we tried to convince people to go protest in other places” said the head of a nearby checkpoint, who introduced himself as major Abu Ahmed. Despite the road block, groups of young man reached the border through another route and few hours later the road was re-opened.
“We stopped relaying on stone throwing 15 years ago. Now, more efficient way of resistance are rockets,” Abu Ahmed added. But young man who took part in Friday protests seemed to disagree. “We cannot remain silent, when our people are being killed in the West Bank and Jerusalem” said Mahmoud Masoud, 22-year-old from Jabalia refugee camp. He joined dozens of people who reached the border areas through fields, north of the usual place of demonstrations. “This time it's not about Gaza, it's an act of solidarity” he said, adding that being injured or shot is absolutely a worthy sacrifice. As he was speaking, Israeli soldiers, hiding behind a mound of dirt started shooting tear gas at sparsely gathered protesters.
“We hope that our protests will force the Israelis to think twice before shooting someone in the West Bank,” 19-year-old Ali told Middle East Eye, standing roughly 200 meters from the fence, near the Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz . He was accompanied by 18-year old Amir Salim, who has been already injured in his chest and leg during the Tuesday protests in the same place and insisted on coming back.
While thousands of people gathered along the road, only a few hundred stood at the fence. Israeli soldiers shot tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition at the protesters.
At the main hospital in Gaza city, Shifa, dozens of people awaited news on their injured relatives. Umm Ramzi, a middle-aged woman from Shujiaiya, told MEE she was there, because her teenage son, Zakariya was shot in his leg. After an hour of waiting at the door of the hospital, where ambulances kept on arriving with more and more injured, the mother still did not know how serious was her son's medical condition. “I would never stop him from protesting, not even after he got injured. This is our fate. We live in a country of protests” she added. The family has more than one reason to protest – Um Ramzi's husban was shot by an Israeli soldier during the second intifada, which left him permanently disabled. During the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip, their family home in Shujjaiya was bombed.
According to statements released by the spokesperson of Health Ministry in Gaza, Ashrif al-Kidra, as of 5:35 pm there were nearly hundred injuries and two people were killed: Yehiya Abdel Qader Farahat and Mahmoud Hatem Hamida. Farahat was shot during the protest at Erez border crossing and Hamida – in eastern Shajjaiya.
A 17-year-old protestor in Nablus in the West Bank, who asked to go by the name Jihad, told Middle East Eye that it was the “Jews” who were the “danger”.
“Abu Mazen [Abbas] only talks, but we do,” Jihad said. “We wish he would put on his army uniform and come join us here on the streets, where we are taking up the honourable struggle until we finally succeed."