Blinken appeals for calm in Jerusalem as tensions soar
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also addressed the Israeli government's widely criticized judicial overhaul plan.
JERUSALEM — America’s top diplomat urged restraint as he landed in Israel following a spate of attacks that have sowed fears of further escalation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Just hours before Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jerusalem to press for calm, Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron opened fire on a Palestinian who the military said drove his vehicle into an Israeli soldier before he was shot dead.
It marked the latest episode of violence in a region gripped with tension. On Friday night, a Palestinian gunman killed seven and injured several others outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem. The shooting rampage, which Israeli officials labeled an act of terrorism, was the most lethal attack on civilians in the city in 15 years.
The attack in Jerusalem came a day after the Israeli military carried out a counterterrorism raid in the flashpoint city of Jenin that left nine Palestinians dead, including an elderly woman. Militants in the Gaza Strip fired several rockets in retaliation, and the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, announced it was cutting security cooperation with Israel.
