The Israeli occupation army has killed and injured dozens of Palestinians in an effort to contain what seems to be a fledgling uprising protesting efforts by government-backed Messianic Jewish fanatics to take over the Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest place.

Medical sources in the Gaza Strip said at least six Palestinian youngsters were killed and dozens injured when trigger-happy Israeli troops fired on stone-throwing youths, protesting excessive Israeli violence against Palestinians.

Several others Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in the last few days.

An eyewitness, Muhammed Yousef al-Jamal, described the killings as "a premeditated massacre."

"The protesters posed no real threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers. Yet the troops opened fire indiscriminately, causing this high number of casualties.

"It is obvious the Israelis wanted to spill as much Palestinian blood as possible."

In the West Bank and Israel proper, Israeli troops and paramilitary police were instructed to shoot to kill on the slightest suspicion that a Palestinian was trying to stab Israelis.

Israelis were also asked to carry their personal weapons with them when they leave their homes as a precautionary measure.

In one particularly ugly incident, Israeli police shot and killed a young Palestinian woman in what eyewitnesses described as an execution-style cold-blooded killing.

The unarmed woman reportedly was standing a few meters from the policemen when they alternately shot her, killing her on the spot.

Footage of the incident showed that the woman could have been arrested easily.

Palestinian Authority (PA) official Saeb Erikat accused Israel of carrying out an open massacre of Palestinian civilians.

He urged the world community to provide protection for the Palestinian people from Israel's brutal war machine.

Right wing Israeli commentators have called on the Binyamin Netanyahu's government to brutally and mercilessly crush Palestinian protests.

Earlier, Netanyahu vowed to take draconian measures against stone throwers and other protesters, including demolishing their homes, imposing hefty monetary fines on the families as well as handing them long prison sentences.

Netanyahu accused the Islamic movement in Israel, Hamas and the PA of fomenting trouble by inciting Palestinians against Israel.

He ignored Israeli provocations at the Aqsa Mosque as well as decades of oppression and repression meted out to the Palestinians by Israel, repeating routine charges that Palestinians just "hated Jews."

Hamas rejected Netanyahu's accusations, saying Israeli brutality and recurrent provocations at the Aqsa Mosque were responsible for the eruption of Palestinian protests.

In al-Khalil, a commercial strike and day of mourning has been declared Saturday to protest ongoing violence and terror by Israeli troops and settlers.

On Friday, a Palestinian was shot and killed at the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba on suspicion he tried to stab a settler.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas also blamed Israel for the violence, saying that Israel was trying to subjugate the Palestinians while continuing to kill any realistic prospects for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.

Khalid Amayreh is a Palestinian journalist and political commentator living in Occupied Palestine. 

©  EsinIslam.Com