(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Palestinian government denounced "Israeli escalation" on Sunday after the Jewish state temporarily banned Palestinians from entering Jerusalem's Old City following attacks that killed two people and wounded a child.
"The Palestinian government denounces the Israeli escalation policy by Israeli occupation authorities against our people in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank," it said in a statement after the imposition of the two-day ban.
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 Palestinian stabbed and wounded a passerby in west Jerusalem before being shot dead by police while fleeing.
The attacks came with Israeli security forces already on alert after recent clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque 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.
The restrictions on the Old City only allow access to Israelis, tourists, residents of the area, business owners and students, police said.
Worship at the sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound will be restricted to Old City residents and Arab Israelis, and limited to men aged 50 and above. There will be no age restrictions on women. They will be allowed to enter through one specific gate.
The usually bustling alleyways of the walled Old City were mostly quiet on Sunday morning, with stores closed and hundreds of police guarding entrances.
Recent clashes
A group of around 50 women as well as several men protested outside a gate before demonstrating inside the neighbourhood, where they were blocked by police. Police later fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse protesters at the gate, an AFP journalist reported.
Some 300,000 Palestinians live in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where the Old City is located.
Saturday's 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.
Overnight in the West Bank city of Jenin, Israeli soldiers raided a refugee camp to arrest a Hamas official identified as Qais al-Saadi, Palestinian security sources said.
Clashes broke out, leaving two Palestinians wounded by live fire and 16 others by rubber bullets, security and medical sources said. Three Palestinians were arrested, but not Saadi.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to return from the US on Sunday and hold consultations with Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon. His security cabinet is also to meet on Monday, after the end of the Jewish Sukkot holiday, Israeli media reported.
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.
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