About 3,000 police have been deployed in Jerusalem on Friday, with expected protests amid the rising violence in the city.
In the last two weeks, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by a car driven by an Israeli Jewish settler; a Palestinian man ran his car into passengers disembarking from a train, killing two people and injuring six, before he was shot and later died of his wounded; Palestinian youths have been shot and killed as Israeli security forces dispersed protests; and a prominent right-wing Israeli Jewish activist, Rabbi Yehuda Glick was shot and injured outside a conference center and his suspected assailant was killed by security forces.
See Israel-Palestine Analysis: Is a “3rd Intifada” Imminent? — The Rising Tension in Jerusalem
Israel-Palestine Daily, Oct 30: Prominent Right-Wing Activist Shot in Jerusalem
The tension has been fed by the rehousing of Israeli Jews in predominantly-Arab neighborhoods. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from his Cabinet and settlers’ councils, announced the construction of another 2,000 housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
On Thursday, after the shooting of Rabbi Glick, Israeli authorities closed the Temple Mount/al-Aqsa Mosque complex. The area was reopened on Friday, but Arab and Islamic men under 50 are barred unless they have Israeli identity cards.
The US Consulate in Jerusalem said it would bar its officials from entering the Old City on Friday out of fear of unrest, and urged caution for US citizens in East Jerusalem.
