Israeli forces shot and killed a 21-year-old Palestinian man during clashes near Hebron in the West Bank, Reuters reports. Protests erupted elsewhere in the West Bank in response to an increased military presence following yesterday’s two stabbing incidents, in which an Israeli woman outside a West Bank settlement and an IDF soldier in Tel Aviv were killed by Palestinians. Israeli police characterized both as terror attacks.
This most recent spate of violence in Israel—triggered in part by the Oct. 29 shooting of Yehuda Glick, a right-wing rabbi and well-known activist for Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount—has many worried about the possibility of an intifada breaking out. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon told reporters that he wouldn’t classify the violence as an intifada—yet. We’re in the midst of an escalation, and won’t allow it to widen,” he said at a press conference.
Ya’alon discouraged Jews from visiting the Temple Mount so as not to further inflame tensions in the area. Still, he urging Israelis to stay alert for possible terror attacks, and called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to tone down Palestinian rhetoric. “If the PA wants to calm things down, it should,” Ya’alon said. “We’re certainly trying to do so.”
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Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.
