PHOTO: An Israeli soldier carries a wounded Palestinian girl, shot during an attempt to enter the settlement of Yitzhar on Wednesday


Five Palestinians were killed by Israel’s forces on Tuesday, while an Israeli settler died from wounds after he was run over by a vehicle.

Two teenagers from the same family, 15-year-old Bashar Nidal al-Jaabari and 17-year-old Hussam Ismael al-Jaabari, were among the slain Palestinians. They were shot dead in the West Bank city of Hebron after they tried to stab Israeli troops. One Israeli soldier was reportedly injured.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces near Hebron after he tried to stab an Israeli soldier. Another man was killed during clashes in the Gaza Strip, and yet another was shot dead by Israeli forces after he rammed his car into two people in the Gush Etzion settlement, south of Bethlehem, lightly injuring both of them.

A 15-year-old Palestinian girl was shot in the hand on Wednesday when she try to enter the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Israeli security forces said she was going to carry out a stabbing attack.

The Israeli settler died hours after he was run over by a Palestinian man near Hebron. Witnesses claimed the settler was attacking cars in the area before he was hit by one of the vehicles.

The driver who hit the settler turned himself in at a Palestinian police station, saying he hit the victim accidentally.

The deaths brought the toll to 50 Palestinians and nine Israelis since the start of October. More than 100 Palestinian demonstrators and activists, including a Hamas leader in the West Bank, have been detained in the past week.

Protests were triggered over Israel’s control of the Temple Mount complex, including the al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem, but they soon expanded over Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Netanyahu Government has responded with tougher security measures, including the deployment of Israeli troops alongside police, control of exits of Palestinian villages, and construction of a dividing wall in Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, violent clashes broke out between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces at a rally in Beit El near Ramallah, with Israeli forces using tear gas to disperse the crowds. In Bethlehem, about 400 Palestinians fought with Israeli troops near Rachel’s Tomb.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Israel on Tuesday and urged Palestinians and Israelis to step back from a “dangerous abyss”:

This conflict has gone on for far too long. We must, for the future of our children, come back from this dangerous abyss, safeguard the two-state solution and lead people back onto the road towards peace.