JERUSALEM: Two Palestinians and an Israeli were killed in a series of attacks and clashes in the West Bank on Friday, in the latest uptick in the nine-month wave of violence.

The killings follow two attacks on Thursday. At least 214 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed since the violence erupted last October.

An Israeli man was killed and three family members were wounded on Friday when a suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire on their car south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the army said.

A woman and 14-year-old girl were taken to hospital in a serious condition, as was a lightly wounded 15-year-old boy.

The shooting came shortly after the Palestinian health ministry said a man had died from tear gas fired by Israeli forces elsewhere in the territory.

Journalists at the Qalandia crossing between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Israeli-held east Jerusalem said Palestinians waiting to cross to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound began throwing stones at Israeli security forces who responded with tear gas and sponge-tipped bullets.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the dead man as Tayseer Habbash, 63, from the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

It was the last Friday of Ramazan, when worshippers flock to Al-Aqsa compound for midday prayers.

A mosque spokesman said that 280,000 people attended and he expected more in the evening.

Earlier on Friday, a young Palestinian woman was killed at a security checkpoint at an entrance to the Hebron shrine known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs.

She aroused the suspicion of border police and was taken aside for a “thorough check” when she “suddenly drew a knife and tried to stab the policewoman who was searching her”, a police statement read.

Another officer shot the Palestinian dead. Palestinian security officials named her as Sarah Tarayra, 27, a relative of Mohammed Nasser Tarayra, 19, who on Thursday fatally stabbed 13-year-old US-Israeli national Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her home at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba adjoining Hebron.

Mohammed Tarayra was shot dead by settlement security guards. Both he and Sarah Tarayra were from the nearby Palestinian village of Bani Naim.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2016

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