Israeli soldier, civilian stabbed and wounded in Jerusalem

Israeli security forces and emergency services gather around the body of an assailant, who was shot dead by police after stabbing two Israeli men, near the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, on May 24, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 24 May 2021
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Israeli soldier, civilian stabbed and wounded in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: An Israeli soldier and a civilian were stabbed near a light rail station in east Jerusalem on Monday before the assailant was shot and killed by police, who described it as a terrorist attack.
The attack came in the the tense aftermath of an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers that was triggered by protests and clashes in Jerusalem.
The Magen David Adom emergency service said it treated two men in their early 20s with stab wounds to their upper bodies. The military identified one of those wounded as a soldier. Both were being treated at nearby hospitals.
Police did not provide any details about the attacker but referred to him as a “terrorist,” a term usually reserved for Palestinian assailants.
The stabbing took place in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state and view east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city its unified capital.


Death toll rises to at least 10 in violence around Iran protests

Updated 58 min 48 sec ago
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Death toll rises to at least 10 in violence around Iran protests

  • The weeklong protests, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations

DUBAI: Violence surrounding protests in Iran sparked by the Islamic Republic’s ailing economy killed two other people, authorities said Saturday, raising the death toll in the demonstrations to at least 10 as they showed no signs of stopping.
The new deaths follow US President Donald Trump warning Iran on Friday that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.” While it remains unclear how and if Trump will intervene, his comments sparked an immediate, angry response from officials within the theocracy threatening to target American troops in the Mideast.
The weeklong protests, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the protests have yet to be as widespread and intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.
The deaths overnight into Saturday involved a new level of violence. In Qom, home to the country’s major Shiite seminaries, a grenade exploded, killing a man there, the state-owned IRAN newspaper reported. It quoted security officials alleging the man carried the grenade to attack people in the city, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.
Online videos from Qom purportedly showed fires in the street overnight.
The second death happened in the town of Harsin, some 370 kilometers (230 miles) southwest of Tehran. There, the newspaper said a member of the Basij, the all-volunteer arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, died in a gun and knife attack in the town in Kermanshah province.
Demonstrations have reached over 100 locations in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported.
Iran’s civilian government under reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with protesters. However, Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much he can do as Iran’s rial has rapidly depreciated, with $1 now costing some 1.4 million rials. That sparked the initial protests.