JERUSALEM – A Palestinian motorist rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint on Tuesday, wounding three, the military said, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived for his first visit in more than a year on a mission to try and calm two months of deadly violence.
Kerry touched down amid a new rash of deadly attacks that have dampened any lingering hopes of renewed peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians during the Obama administration’s final year. Kerry conceded his visit had none of the ambitious agendas of past trips and was primarily focused on stemming the violence.
The violence erupted in mid-September over tensions surrounding a sensitive Jerusalem holy site and quickly spread across Israel and into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Over this period, 19 Israelis have been killed, mostly in stabbings, while 89 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Of them, 57 are said by Israel to be attackers and the rest were killed in clashes.
The past week has been the deadliest thus far.
A Palestinian fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier at a West Bank gas station Monday before being killed along with two other Palestinian attackers. Five people were killed in stabbing and shooting attacks last Thursday, including Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old American from Kerry’s home state of Massachusetts.