A suspected Palestinian fighter opened fire at a vehicle in Jerusalem yesterday wounding two Israelis and at least six Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli forces during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, officials said.
An Israeli military spokesman said soldiers in the West Bank city of Jenin, which has seen frequent Israeli raids over the past year, were apprehending suspected fighters when they came under heavy fire. The Palestinian Health Ministry said six Palestinians were injured in the clashes and the military said there were no Israeli casualties.
In Jerusalem, Israeli police said they were in search of a suspected Palestinian fighter who shot into a car wounding two in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem, a site of serious friction in recent years between settlers and Palestinians.
The incidents came after a year of escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence and soaring tensions during the holy month of Ramadan. On Monday, Israel’s domestic security service said it had uncovered an attempt to recruit Palestinian operatives in the West Bank. US-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem collapsed almost a decade ago and show no sign of revival. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East War when it also captured Gaza and the West Bank, in a move not recognised internationally.
It sees all of Jerusalem as its eternal and undivided capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their own future capital.