Israeli forces yesterday killed two Palestinians in the West Bank, police said, and two Israeli police officers were stabbed in occupied East Jerusalem in a resurgence of violence now into its fourth day.
Palestinian street attacks that began nearly a year ago had largely waned in recent months, but a series of assaults since Friday have raised alarm in Israel of a new wave of bloodshed in the run-up to the Jewish New Year holiday next month.
In the latest violence, two Palestinians who allegedly tried to stab Israeli paramilitary border policemen in the town of Hebron, a flashpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, were shot by the force, Israeli police said.
One of the assailants was pronounced dead at the scene, police said, and the other died of his wounds in a Jerusalem hospital, according to a spokeswoman for the facility.
The Palestinian health ministry said both were aged 17.
The incident occurred near the Ibrahimi Mosque.
The deaths raised to six the number of alleged attackers — five Palestinians and a Jordanian — killed since Friday in incidents in which Israeli authorities said at least nine Israelis have been wounded.
Earlier yesterday, a Palestinian allegedly stabbed and wounded two police officers, one of them a woman who sustained serious injuries, in East Jerusalem, police said.
The second officer, a man, shot and wounded the assailant.
At least 217 Palestinians have died in violent incidents since October 2015 in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Of them, 146 were identified by authorities as assailants while others were killed during clashes and protests.
Palestinians have accused Israel of using excessive force and say that some of those killed posed no threat or had no intention of attacking anyone.
In some cases, Israel has opened investigations into whether excessive force was used.
The upsurge in violence has shattered several weeks of relative calm.
Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and illegal Israeli settlement expansion on occupied land that Palestinians seek for an independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif Qanoua said yesterday the movement welcomed the attacks.
He called them “a natural response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation against our people”.
On the eve of yesterday’s attacks, the Palestinian foreign ministry condemned  the increased Israeli security measures in Hebron, Jerusalem and elsewhere, including new checkpoints and closing off villages.
An Israeli security official, on condition of anonymity, said tensions may be increasing because of Palestinian anger over Jewish visits to Al Aqsa mosque compound.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his nearly year-long order barring members of parliament and ministers from visiting the volatile site.
Clashes erupted at the Al Aqsa compound last year during the Jewish holidays amid Muslim fears that Israel was planning to change the rules governing the site, claims Netanyahu vehemently denied.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have called for Jewish prayer rights at the compound, while hardline groups favour construction of a third Jewish temple there.