Self goal: Jew slain by jittery armed Israelis

AMMAN: Jordanian King Abdallah again warned Israel Thursday against any move to change the status quo at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, while reiterating calls for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The king warned against “any attempt to change the status quo,” which Netanyahu has repeatedly promised to preserve. He added that “achievement of a just and comprehensive peace, on the basis of a two-state (Israeli and Palestinian) solution, is the only way out of the crisis in the region.”
Meanwhile, a Jewish man was shot and killed in a scuffle with Israeli soldiers who suspected he was a Palestinian attacker, police said Thursday, in a reflection of the jittery mood that has gripped Israelis amid a spate of near-daily stabbings.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said soldiers deployed in Jerusalem demanded late Wednesday that the man show them his ID. The man refused, scuffled with the soldiers and then attempted to seize one of their weapons. A private security guard nearby shot the man, and one soldier also opened fire. The man later died of his wounds. Police said the soldiers claimed the man had asked to see their IDs and proclaimed, “I am Daesh.”
“The soldiers had high suspicions that he was a terrorist,” Rosenfeld said. Police later said the man was a 28-year-old Jewish resident of Jerusalem.
Israelis have scrambled to purchase pepper spray for self-defense, and stores and restaurants are empty.
In new violence Thursday, police said two Palestinians stabbed an Israeli at a bus stop after they tried to board a bus ferrying children to school. Police shot the two men, one of whom later died while the other was seriously wounded. Police said the Israeli man was moderately wounded.
Also Thursday, Israeli troops placed a concrete barrier in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, near a Jewish holy site where thousands of faithful are expected for a pilgrimage this weekend.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief says envoys from the US, the EU, Russia and the UN will meet Friday to try to bring an end to a monthlong spate of violence. Federica Mogherini says that the grouping of Mideast mediators known as the Quartet will urge Israelis and Palestinians to calm the situation.