Israeli military forces have arrested a Palestinian man in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as tensions continue to simmer between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians protesting against the Tel Aviv regime’s expropriation of their lands and settlement expansion activities. RNA - Israeli media outlets asserted that a man in his fifties sustained serious wounds on Wednesday, when an unidentified Palestinian in his thirties stabbed him close to Har Homa settlement in southern East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The Israeli settler was reportedly transferred to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in critical condition, where he later died of his injuries.
The occupied territories have witnessed new tensions ever since US President Donald Trump on December 6, 2017 announced Washington's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital” and said the US would move its embassy to the city.
The status of Jerusalem al-Quds is the thorniest issue in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinians see East Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of their future state.
The development came on the same day that Hebrew-language daily newspaper Israel Hayom reported that Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to approve construction of 3,000 settler units in the occupied West Bank
The newspaper reported that Netanyahu made the announcement a day before internal elections for the leadership of the Likud party, in which former Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar rivals him.
Netanyahu has said that he plans to endorse the decision at the so-called Supreme Planning Council of the Civil Administration within the next two weeks.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council in December 2016 adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.
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