More violence after Israel arrests Palestinian axe murderers

On Sunday, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian in the West Bank and wounded another who stabbed a police officer in Jerusalem, only hours after two Palestinians were arrested for axing three Israelis to death.

Since late March, dozens of people have been killed in a wave of violence that includes Palestinian and Arab-Israeli attackers.

In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, a 19-year-old Palestinian without an Israeli entry permit stabbed a police officer outside the Old City before being shot and “neutralised” by forces at the scene, a police statement said.

The officer was taken to hospital in moderate condition, police said, with medics saying the stabber was not dead.

Also Sunday, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who tried to enter Israel through the Jewish state’s barrier in the north of the occupied West Bank.

Soldiers “identified a (person) trying to cross the security barrier” near Tulkarem, an army statement said. “The force shot at him in accordance with procedures. The suspect was taken for medical care.”

A spokesman for the Sheba hospital in central Israel told AFP the Palestinian had died of his wounds, with the Palestinian health ministry identifying the deceased as Mahmud Eram.

Security forces had earlier arrested two Palestinians suspected of carrying out an axe attack in central Israel on Thursday that left three dead.

The security services — who previously identified the suspects as Assad Yussef al-Rifai, 19, and Subhi Imad Abu Shukair, 20 — said the pair were spotted hiding in a bush near a quarry, just outside the central town of Elad, where the attack took place.

“We said we would get the terrorists, and so we did,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said ahead of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

The perpetrators had entered Israel through the porous barrier with the West Bank, an Israeli military official said earlier, calling their infiltration a “failure” of the army.

Thursday’s deadly attack in Elad, populated by mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews, was the sixth in which Israelis have been targeted since March 22.

Witnesses said two assailants leapt from a car swinging axes at passers-by, leaving three dead and four wounded, before fleeing in the same vehicle.

The manhunt included the police, domestic security agency and the army, along with helicopters and drones, the security forces said.

The Israeli military official said bloody banknotes, presumably dropped by the suspects in flight, helped lead the forces to where the pair were hiding.

Forces scanning the area noticed a bush “that looked a bit different”, said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.

The suspects surrendered and confessed during initial questioning, the official said.

Israel has identified the three killed Thursday as Yonatan Habakuk, 44, and Boaz Gol, 49, both from Elad, as well as Oren Ben Yiftach, 35.

The bloodshed unfolded as Israel marked the 74th anniversary of its founding, which has previously been a tense day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For Palestinians, the anniversary of Israel’s 1948 declaration of independence marks the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, when more than 700,000 fled or were expelled during the war surrounding Israel’s creation.

The Elad killings followed a tense period in which the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the Jewish festival of Passover and the Christian holiday of Easter overlapped.

Tensions have boiled over into violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a highly contested site in Jerusalem’s Israeli-annexed Old City.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had condemned the Elad attacks, warning that the murder of Israeli civilians risked fuelling a broader cycle of violence.

But the Gaza Strip’s Islamist rulers Hamas praised the attack — as did the Gaza-based Islamic jihad armed group — calling it a consequence of unrest at Al-Aqsa.

The Islamic Jihad called the attackers “heroes” and said their arrest would not “discourage” people from continuing their violent resistance.

Hamas said the attack “demonstrates our people’s anger at the occupation’s attacks on holy sites”.

Last week Hamas threatened Israel with rocket fire and attacks on synagogues if its security forces carry out further raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

“Whoever has a rifle must have it ready, and whoever does not have a rifle must prepare their knife or their axe,” said Yahya Sinwar, Hamas chief in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

A string of anti-Israeli attacks since March 22 have killed 18 people, including an Arab-Israeli police officer and two Ukrainians.

Palestinians carried out two of the deadly strikes in the Tel Aviv area.

During the same time period, 28 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs died, including attackers and those slain by Israeli security forces in West Bank operations.