Tensions run high between Israel and Palestine

Palestinians torch biblical Jewish shrine, Israeli soldiers retaliate by firing at the crowds killing two Palestinians

Shortly after the arson attack on the tomb of biblical patriarch Joseph, Palestinian protesters threw stones over the border of the Gaza Strip at Israeli forces who fired back, killing two and wounding scores of others in the crowd, Palestinian medical officials said.  Palestinians set fire to a Jewish shrine in the occupied West Bank, and an attacker disguised as a journalist stabbed an Israeli soldier on Friday as tensions ran high after more than two weeks of violence.

The worst outbreak in bloodshed in months has killed at least 37 Palestinians, including attackers and children in assaults and confrontations, and seven Israelis in stabbings and other attacks on buses and in the streets. Meanwhile Israeli security forces deployed massively in Jerusalem as Jews armed themselves with everything from guns to broomsticks, rattled by a wave of Palestinian attacks that have shaken the country.

Israel has mobilised some 300 soldiers to reinforce police stretched thin by the unrest. They are due to be in place by Sunday, while conscripts wearing fluorescent vests marked “police” could already be seen guarding Tel Aviv’s bus station.

The last time soldiers deployed in such large numbers was in 2002, during the second intifada, according to a security source.