Clashes take place in Palestine, wounding scores

Nearly 80 Palestinians are wounded from clashes with Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank following Israel’s prohibition of Palestinians from entering the Old City of Jerusalem.

Israeli police fired live and rubber-coated bullets against Palestinian protesters on Sunday, according to Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

An 18-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli soldiers during clashes in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, medics and Palestinian police sources said.

Huzeifa Othman Suleiman is the first Palestinian to be killed in a fresh outbreak of violent clashes in the West Bank after a Palestinian attacker killed two Israelis in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday evening, prompting Israel to tighten security.

Eighteen people were wounded from live rounds and another 59 from rubber bullets, PRCS spokeswoman Errab Foqaha said, according to the AFP news agency.

Meanwhile in Gaza, two rockets fired from the Strip toward Israel took place on Sunday evening, with one hitting an uninhabited area in southern Israel while another exploded in the sky .

The first rocket hit an open space in Eshkol Regional Council, near the border, causing no damage. Sirens did not go off since the rocket did not pose a threat.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel was "waging a fight to the death against Palestinian terror", and ordered tough new measures after the killing of two Israelis in Jerusalem.

"These steps include, among others, speeded up demolition of terrorists' homes," he said in a video address distributed by his office.

Netanyahu had convened his ministers of defence and internal security and top security officials immediately after landing back in Israel Sunday from delivering a speech to the UN General Assembly.

He said he instructed them on steps "to prevent terror and deter and punish the attackers".

They would also include broader use of detention without trial for suspects, further reinforcement of security forces in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank and restraining orders keeping unspecified "inciters" away from the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which he called by its Jewish name of Temple Mount.

Earlier on Sunday, police took the rare and drastic step of barring Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City in the wake of an attack there Saturday in which a Palestinian killed two Israelis and wounded a child and a further stabbing Sunday morning in which an Israeli teen was wounded.