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Palestinians Barred From Jerusalem's Old City

Palestinians Barred From Jerusalem's Old City

Israeli police are stopping Palestinian residents of Jerusalem from entering the walled Old City after two stabbing attacks.

They say they will be taking the unprecedented action for two days during a Jewish holiday to prevent further violence.

Palestinians who live, work and study within the Old City, as well as Israelis and tourists, will be allowed in.

In the latest attack, just before dawn on Sunday, a Palestinian teenager knifed a 15-year-old Israeli before being shot dead by police.

Hours earlier another Palestinian teenager stabbed to death two Israelis and wounded a woman and a young child.

The attacker, who was also shot dead, has been identified by relatives as Fadi Alloun, 19, from Arab East Jerusalem.

On Saturday he apparently wrote on his Facebook page: "Either martyrdom or victory".

His victims have been named by Israeli officials as Aharon Banita, a 21-year-old soldier, and Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, a father of seven who was a rabbi at a seminary in the Old City's Muslim Quarter.

Tensions have risen in Jerusalem over access to a sensitive holy site within the Old City known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

Israeli police and Palestinian demonstrators have clashed repeatedly at the hilltop compound in recent weeks.

The unrest has spread to the West Bank, where violence erupted on Sunday during an Israeli police raid. At least 18 Palestinians were arrested in clashes with security forces.

On Friday, an Israeli couple was killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would be meeting security officials to decide on a "harsh offensive on Palestinian Islamic terror".

A statement on his Facebook page added: "We are in an all-out war against terror."

Some 300,000 Palestinians live in Jerusalem, making up about a third of its population.

They reside in the predominantly Arab eastern district and are usually free to enter the Old City, where major Muslim, Christian and Jewish holy sites are located.