Jerusalem hit by fresh knife attack as clashes erupt in West Bank

Jerusalem was shaken by its first stabbing in two weeks Friday as violence intensified in the occupied West Bank with fresh clashes and knife attacks in a surge of Palestinian unrest.

 A Palestinian stabbed and lightly wounded a civilian in Jerusalem, where the wave of violence first erupted a month ago over the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a highly sensitive site sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

 The attacker was shot and severely wounded, while a bystander was injured when security forces opened fire on the assailant, police said.

 The identities of the stabbed civilian and the wounded bystander were not immediately clear.

 Jerusalem had been calm in recent days as Israel clamped down on weeks of unrest with a massive boost of security forces and increased checkpoints, but violence has shifted to the occupied West Bank with daily clashes and stabbings.

 In the city of Nablus, two Palestinians allegedly tried to stab members of Israeli forces guarding a major checkpoint, and were shot, police said. One died and the other was wounded and arrested.

 Elsewhere in the West Bank, in the volatile city of Hebron, hundreds of youths lobbed stones, firebombs and burning tyres at Israeli soldiers who hit back with tear gas and rubber bullets.

 Violent clashes also erupted in Ramallah and Bethlehem as angry youths protested Israeli occupation amid a surge of unrest that has raised fears of a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

 Also in Ramallah a Palestinian hurled a Molotov cocktail at border guards and was shot and wounded, police said.

 In the Gaza Strip, protesters clashed with Israeli forces along the northern and eastern borders.