Israeli forces arrest Palestinian woman over 'attempted stabbing' in Jerusalem

Israeli security forces arrested a Palestinian woman said to be in her 50s on Saturday, claiming that she attempted to stab an officer in Jerusalem.

The woman approached police officers with a knife at the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City, police said in a statement.

Several videos emerged on social media of the woman being pushed to the ground, handcuffed and marched out of the Old City and taken for questioning at a detention centre, while the area was placed on lockdown.

However Jerusalem-based Palestinian activist Alaa al-Haddad told The New Arab's Arabic-language service that the officers arrested the woman after they claimed to have found a fruit knife in her bag when searching her at a checkpoint.

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The incident comes on the same day a Palestinian youth was arrested in the West Bank city of Hebron, who Israeli security forces also alleged stabbed an Israeli settler.

Local media report that the settler was injured after an altercation with the unnamed Palestinian near the settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron.

The 22-year-old settler was taken for treatment for moderate injuries, according to the Israeli emergency services.

Palestinian sources explained that the incident happened on a road between the settlement and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a religious site for Jews which many of the city's settlers frequently visit.

The tomb building also houses the Ibrahimi Mosque, a significant religious site for Muslims which witnesses frequent clashes due to tensions over access to the mosque and the proliferation of illegal settlements near the tomb which has led to a bulked up Israeli military presence.

The two incidents come at a time of heightened tensions in Jerusalem over the al-Aqsa compound.

Hamas on Wednesday called for Palestinians to "mobilise" during Friday prayers against the "defilement" of the compound and of Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque.

Groups of hundreds of settlers regularly storm the al-Aqsa compound at night under the protection of Israeli security forces, demanding the site - which is built on the ruins of second Jewish Temple, the holiest site in Judaism - be returned to Israel.

Palestinians worshippers gathered outside al-Aqsa on leaving Friday prayers, chanting: "With spirit and blood, we will salvage Al-Aqsa."