Palestinian shot dead after he rammed into soldiers

In a near daily occurrence, Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and shootings, have killed 19 Israelis and one U.S. citizen since Oct 1. Israeli forces have killed 92 Palestinians, some of whom were carrying out assaults, in clashes with police and troops. Many of those killed have been teenagers.

The Palestinians have accused Israel of using excessive force to quell attacks, saying that in many cases assailants could have been stopped and detained without being shot and killed. The attacks, many of them carried out spontaneously, have been fuelled in part by Muslim anger over Jewish visits to the Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site, which is sacred in Judaism too.

The Palestinians are also frustrated by the failure of decades of peace talks to deliver them an independent state. A flash visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by U.S. Secretary John Kerry on Tuesday, aimed at quelling the violence, has not shown any sign of success.