Israel said Monday it arrested five alleged Hamas militants over the West Bank killing of a Jewish settler couple and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged an iron fist against unrest.
Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager as fresh clashes raged in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The spike in violence has brought international calls for calm, with concerns the unrest could spin out of control and memories of previous Palestinian uprisings still fresh.
Speaking as security forces announced the arrest of the alleged Hamas members over last week’s shooting of the couple in front of their four children, Netanyahu said no attackers were beyond reach.
“We are not prepared to give immunity to anybody, not to any rioter… or any terrorist, anywhere, and therefore there are no limits on the activities of the security forces,” he said ahead of a special session of his security cabinet.
A joint statement by the police, army and Shin Bet domestic security agency said the five men arrested “belonged to the Hamas movement in Nablus” in the northern West Bank.
It said the suspects had confessed to shooting dead Rabbi Eitam Henkin and his wife Naam in their car as their children sat in the back.
Netanyahu is under pressure from right-wingers in his governing coalition after four Israelis have been killed in as many days and others including a two-year-old child were wounded.
On Monday afternoon, Israel soldiers shot dead the 13-year-old Palestinian in clashes at a refugee camp near Bethlehem, Palestinian authorities said.
He was the second Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in 24 hours. Dozens have been wounded.
– Video stokes tensions –
An Israeli army spokeswoman said some 50 rioters hurled stones at security forces and “the force responded with 0.22-calibre rounds at the main instigators, identifying a hit”.
She said there would be an investigation.
Further clashes between soldiers and protesters erupted later inside Bethlehem as well as in Shuafat and other areas of east Jerusalem.
Video purportedly showing Israeli police shoot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian accused of stabbing a 15-year-old Israeli early Sunday has added to tensions, with the man’s family saying security forces executed him.
Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs have faced off against Israeli security forces using both live rounds and rubber bullets. Jewish settlers have also clashed with Palestinians.
On Sunday, Netanyahu pledged “a fight to the death against Palestinian terror” and announced a package of new measures.
They included swifter demolition of the homes of those accused of attacks, broader use of detention without trial for suspects, and reinforcements for Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who said in a UN speech last week that he was no longer bound by previous accords with Israel, accused Netanyahu’s government of escalating tensions.
Late Monday he met Palestinian security chiefs.
European nations and the United States have appealed for calm, with Germany warning of the risk of a “new intifada”.
– ‘Shoot him!’ –
In a rare move, Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday after two Israelis were stabbed to death there.
The Old City restrictions lasted until Monday’s end of the eight-day Sukkot Jewish holiday. Only Israelis, tourists, residents, business owners and students were allowed in.
Worship at the sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound was limited to men aged 50 and above. There were no age restrictions on women.
Around 300,000 Palestinians live in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where the Old City is located.
Esraa Hajajra, 19, was among several Muslims protesting over limited access to the Al-Aqsa compound.
“This is our mosque, but they want to take it and pray there,” she said of suspicions among Palestinians that Israel will seek to change rules governing the compound, which Netanyahu strongly denies.
Israeli security forces were already on alert after recent clashes at the compound and Old City and Thursday’s ambush of the settler couple.
On Saturday night, a 19-year-old Palestinian killed two Israelis in the Old City and wounded a child before police shot him dead, prompting a further security clampdown.
And early Sunday, Palestinian Fadi Alloun was accused of stabbing and wounding a 15-year-old passerby in west Jerusalem before being shot dead by police.
Video on social media showed what appeared to be the alleged attacker walking as bystanders shouted “shoot him” in Hebrew before a policeman fired and he fell.
Palestinians widely see the shooting as unjustified, pointing to Jewish extremists chanting “Death to Arabs” in Jerusalem after Saturday night’s attack in the Old City.
His father accused police of executing him and asked to see evidence that he had stabbed someone.
“They didn’t even try to arrest him,” Samir Alloun told AFP.