News - Middle East: At least two Israeli settlers have been injured, including one seriously, in a Palestinian retaliatory operation on a promenade near the Old City of al-Quds, as situation remains particularly volatile amid deadly Israeli military raids and rampages by extremist settlers on Palestinians.

The Israeli police said in a statement that the purported assailant, a 17-year-old Palestinian from East al-Quds, carried out the attack with a cleaver just outside the Jaffa Gate (Bab al-Khalil) entrance to the Old City on Wednesday.

The teenager, who attempted to flee the scene, was arrested by officers following a brief chase, the statement added.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said a 56-year-old man was seriously hurt after being stabbed in the upper body and a 17-year-old boy sustained a superficial stab wound to his abdomen.

Another woman in her 50s was treated by medics for acute anxiety.

Hamas reaction

The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement welcomed the operation.

Mohammad Hamadeh, Hamas spokesman in al-Quds, called it a “natural response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation, in light of the incursions to al-Aqsa Mosque compound and its people, the demolition of homes, a displacement war, and attacks on freedom and education.”

The attack came less than two days after Israeli military forces violently kicked and arrested a Palestinian woman in the occupied Old City of al-Quds over an alleged stabbing attempt against the regime's soldiers.

The Israeli police alleged in a statement that the attempted stabbing occurred on Monday night in the Bab Hutta neighborhood, near the Lion’s Gate entrance to the Old City, as the woman from the Jenin area in the northern West Bank pulled out a knife and tried to stab an officer guarding the area.

The officer was unharmed, as the knife did not penetrate a protective vest he was wearing.

The Israeli policeman then knocked the Palestinian woman down to the ground, and started kicking her mercilessly.

Other officers quickly reached the scene and detained her. Several other Palestinian women were also arrested, as they attempted to intervene to stop Israeli forces from assaulting the young woman.

Israeli forces launch raids on various cities of the West Bank on an almost daily basis under the pretext of detaining what it calls “wanted” Palestinians. The raids usually lead to violent confrontations with residents.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed this year in the occupied Palestinian territories and Gaza. The majority of these fatalities have been recorded in the West Bank.

Source: Press TV