JERUSALEM — Clashes erupted Sunday between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces at the West Bank funeral of a teenage boy killed by Israeli troops, as an Ecuadorean tourist died of wounds suffered in an attack last week by a Palestinian man who drove his car into a crowded Jerusalem train station.
With tensions rising in the area, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was beefing up security patrols in Jerusalem with 1,000 extra officers and special forces. The city’s eastern sector has experienced months of unrest, including near nightly clashes between police and Palestinian youths and last week’s deadly attack at the station.
The 22-year-old Ecuadorean, confirmed by police and hospital officials, became the second person to die from Wednesday’s attack. Her name was not immediately released. A 3-month-old Israeli-American girl, Chaya Zissel Braun, was also killed.
Police said the driver, a Palestinian man from east Jerusalem, had a history of anti-Israel violence and had previously spent time in Israeli prison. The man was shot as he tried to flee the scene and later died of his wounds.
In the West Bank, thousands of people attended the funeral of 14-year-old Orwah Hammad, a U.S.-born Palestinian who was killed in a clash with Israeli troops last week. Relatives have said Hammad was among a group of youths throwing stones at soldiers. The Israeli army has said it fired to prevent the hurling of a firebomb.
A large crowd carried the boy’s body, wrapped in a black and white headscarf and green flag, on a stretcher, in the village of Silwad, near Ramallah. Elsewhere in town, groups of youths hurled rocks at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas.
Hammad, who was born in New Orleans and came to the West Bank with his family when he was 6, was the second Palestinian teen to die in clashes with Israeli troops in the past week.
The West Bank bloodshed has added to the tensions caused by months of unrest in east Jerusalem. Addressing his Cabinet, Netanyahu said Israel was increasing security in the city to restore order.
“We will not allow the reality in the city to become such that people lob stones, throw firebombs and disturb public order,” Netanyahu said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting.
In recent weeks, Palestinian youths have clashed frequently with Israeli police, thrown stones and firebombs at Israeli motorists and disrupted service of the city’s light rail train.
The violence on Sunday prompted officials in Tel Aviv to postpone school trips to Jerusalem this week. The municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and cultural capital, said it made the decision in response to requests from 8th-grade parents because the planned trip included visits to areas affected by the violence.
