After attacks Israelis shoot, kill 4 Palestinians

The weeks-long spate of intense violence has left eight Israelis and 40 Palestinians dead, with no sign of diminishing tensions across Israel and the West Bank.

By Aaron Heller / Associated Press

After attacks Israelis shoot, kill 4 Palestinians — Sunday Democrat, 18 October 2015 — Sunday Democrat · 18 October 2015

Send this clipping to somebody

Transcribed from the clipping

Palestinian assailants carried out five stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Saturday, authorities said, as a month-long outburst of violence showed no signs of abating. The unrest came despite new security measures that have placed troops and checkpoints around Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. At least four assailants were killed.

In Jerusalem, where most of the violence has taken place, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said a 16-year-old Palestinian drew a knife on officers early Saturday when they asked for identification after a bystander said he was behaving suspiciously. She said the officers shot and killed the teenager after he tried to stab them.

The incident took place near where two Palestinian men boarded a bus earlier in the week and began shooting and stabbing passengers, killing two. Later, another assailant tried to stab a policeman on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but struck his bulletproof vest and did not injure him. The assailant was shot and wounded.

Police said when an officer approached to treat the attacker, he pulled out a second knife and attempted to attack him. He was then shot and killed. The other three stabbing attacks Saturday took place in the West Bank city of Hebron, a frequent flashpoint where a few hundred Jewish settlers live in close proximity to tens of thousands of Palestinians.

In the first incident, Israel's military said an Israeli pedestrian shot and killed a Palestinian who tried to stab him. Later, police said a Palestinian woman stabbed a female officer at a border police base in Hebron and lightly injured her before the officer shot her dead. At night, the army said a soldier was stabbed and moderately wounded before the attacker was shot.

There were no immediate details on his condition. Over the past month, eight Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them stabbings. In that time, 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 19 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops. Israel has taken unprecedented steps in response to the attacks.

It has deployed soldiers in Israeli cities and erected concrete barriers outside some Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, where most of the attackers came from. Ordinary citizens have also increasingly taken up arms to protect themselves.

On Saturday, roadblocks on the outskirts of Arab neighborhoods caused massive traffic jams, with some frustrated motorists saying they had been waiting for several hours.

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping.

Context added by this archive

This is a fuller cut of the same AP copy as the clipping on slide 21 (s021_2), but with a byline (Aaron Heller) and — importantly — a different headline. Where other papers in this batch lead with Israeli deaths or with rockets, this one puts the Israeli shooting in the active voice at the top of the page: "After attacks Israelis shoot, kill 4 Palestinians".

The dek then gives both tallies, eight Israelis and 40 Palestinians, and the body text makes the distinction the archive cares about: of the 40 Palestinians killed, "19 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops" — the verb is "labeled", not "were".

Photo caption: "Palestinian protesters walk between burning tires during clashes with Israeli security forces near the Beit El settlement on the outskirts of Ramallah in the West Bank on Saturday." Credit: (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES).

Cite this clipping

"After attacks Israelis shoot, kill 4 Palestinians," Sunday Democrat, 18 October 2015. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2015-021. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2015-021