Palestinian youths throw stones towards Israeli security forces during clashes in the West Bank town of Hebron on October 4, 2015, after Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City on as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child. AFP
AFP/Jerusalem
Israel took the rare and drastic step of barring Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday as fears of a further escalation in violence mounted after attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child.
A series of clashes involving Israeli security forces, Jewish settlers and Palestinians also broke out in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with security chiefs to discuss the situation.
The Old City restrictions will be in place for two days, with only Israelis, tourists, residents of the area, business owners and students allowed, police said.
Worship at the sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound will be limited to men aged 50 and above. There will be no age restrictions on women.
The Palestinian government denounced "Israeli escalation" after the announcement of the ban, which Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called unprecedented.
The usually bustling alleyways of the walled Old City were mostly quiet Sunday morning, with hundreds of police guarding entrances.
Around 300,000 Palestinians live in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where the Old City is located.
The latest attacks came with Israeli security forces already on alert after recent clashes at the Al-Aqsa compound and surrounding Old City, as well as the murder in the West Bank of a Jewish settler couple in front of their young children.
On Saturday night, a Palestinian said to be an Islamist militant killed two Israeli men and wounded a woman and a toddler in a knife and gun attack in the Old City. Police shot dead the attacker.
In a separate incident early Sunday, a 19-year-old Palestinian stabbed and wounded a 15-year-old passerby in west Jerusalem before being shot dead by police while fleeing.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for calm, saying he was "deeply concerned that these latest incidents signal a dangerous slide toward escalation".
There have been fears that the sporadic violence could spin out of control, with some warning of the risk of a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Tear gas and bullets
There were clashes elsewhere overnight and on Sunday, and the Red Crescent reported 77 Palestinians wounded from both live rounds and rubber bullets.
Another 139 had been treated for tear gas inhalation and six for injuries sustained in beatings by soldiers or Jewish settlers, a Red Crescent spokeswoman said.
Clashes broke out in areas including Jenin in the West Bank and the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya, where the attacker in Sunday morning's stabbing, identified as Fadi Alloun, was from.
Netanyahu returned from the United States on Sunday and held consultations with security chiefs. His security cabinet is also to meet on Monday, after the end of the Jewish Sukkot holiday.
Last week, in his address to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he was no longer bound by previous accords with Israel, accusing the Israeli government of violating them.
Abbas pushed for a multilateral peace effort while Netanyahu, in his own address to the Assembly, called for a resumption of direct peace talks with the Palestinians.
Child wounded
Saturday's Old City attack saw a two-year-old child slightly wounded in the leg and taken to hospital. A woman was in serious condition, rescue services said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said it appeared the child had been shot.
The two men who were killed were a 41-year-old rabbi and resident of the Old City as well as a 21-year-old who lived in a West Bank settlement and was an off-duty soldier, Israeli media said.
Media reports said three of the victims were members of the same ultra-Orthodox family on their way to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray.
The attacker first used a knife, but reportedly took a gun from one of the male victims and fired at police when they responded after being alerted, before he was himself shot dead.
Police named him as Mohannad Shafiq Halani, 19, from a village near Ramallah in the West Bank.
Militant group Islamic Jihad said he was one of its members, but did not claim responsibility for the attack. Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, praised the attack as "a heroic act of resistance".
Israeli security forces have been on high alert during recent Jewish and Muslim holidays, particularly with Jews visiting the sensitive Al-Aqsa compound, which they call the Temple Mount.
