Palestinian residents in Jerusalem have been banned from entering the walled Old City by police after separate stabbing attacks saw two Israelis killed and three seriously wounded.
A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by police on Saturday after he fatally stabbed two Israelis in the Old City and seriously wounded a woman and a toddler.
Just hours later, a 15-year-old Israeli was stabbed and wounded by a Palestinian teenager. Police said the attacker was also shot dead.
The attacks came just days after a Jewish couple were shot and killed while driving in the West Bank with their four children in the back of their car, which saw the deployment of hundreds of Israeli troops to the area in response.
This weekend’s violence prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to claim the country is in an “all-out war against terror”.
In a Facebook post, he said he would meet with security officials on Sunday to discuss a “harsh offensive on Palestinian Islamic terror”.
The ban on Palestinians entering the Old City will last for two days, Israeli police said, which is intended to prevent violence during a Jewish holiday. Palestinians living, working and studying within the Old City will be allowed to enter, however.
Tensions in the city have escalated as Israeli police and Palestinian demonstrators have repeatedly clashed over a specific area of the Old City, which is considered sacred in both the Jewish and Muslim faiths.
In recent weeks the fighting between both sides has spread to the West Bank, where Israel made a number of arrests during raids on Sunday.
The teenager involved in Saturday’s fatal stabbing was identified by relatives as 19-year-old Fadi Alloun, from Arab East Jerusalem.
According to the Associated Press, he wrote on his Facebook page ahead of the attacks: “Either martyrdom or victory”.
Some 300,000 Palestinians live in Jerusalem, making up about a third of the city's population. They live in the predominantly Arab eastern district and have residency status in the city, but do not hold Israeli citizenship. They are usually free to enter the Old City in east Jerusalem, where major Muslim, Christian and Jewish holy sites are located.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
