Netanyahu claims Israel facing ‘wave of terror’

Thursday’s incidents followed four similar reported knife attacks a day earlier in Jerusalem and two other cities, one of which left an alleged Palestinian attacker dead after being shot by Israeli security forces.

Hours earlier, a Jewish seminary student was seriously injured when he was stabbed in the neck by a Palestinian near a light rail station in the French Hill area of East Jerusalem, police said.

In the evening, a Palestinian stabbed and slightly injured a 25-year-old Israeli man at a mall in Petah Tikvah city in central Israel.

Samri did not immediately say whether the assailant was Palestinian or a member of Israel’s Arab minority.

A Palestinian stabbed a Jewish man in Jerusalem on Thursday in the latest in a spate of knife attacks, defying Israeli attempts to contain escalating violence.

Four Israelis have been killed in attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank over the past week.

Palestinians fear increasing visits by Jewish groups to al-Aqsa are eroding longtime Muslim religious control there.

“All our instructions to our (security) agencies, our factions and our youth have been that we do not want escalation”, said Abbas in a meeting with the PLO executive committee on Tuesday in the first statement on the situation since the beginning of the escalations.

Israel beefed up its forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank since the current unrest began about three weeks ago, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense domestic pressure to do more.

And the violence has spread beyond Jerusalem and the West Bank, the historical hot spots. At least six Palestinians were reported wounded Thursday by rounds from low-velocity sniper rifles which security forces have been authorized to use against riot ringleaders.

There have been at least eight stabbing attacks since Saturday, when a Palestinian killed two Israelis in Jerusalem’s Old City, helping to prompt a security crackdown. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) Israeli police check the papers of a Palestinian woman in Jerusalem’s Old City Thursday, October 8, 2015.

The spokeswoman said those injured had been attacked “for nationalist reasons, because they were Arabs”.

The move by Israeli authorities to prevent Muslim men under 50 from attending prayers at the site angered Palestinian leaders.

According to an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations, Netanyahu ordered the ban on the holy site because he was concerned that any high-profile visits there could spark further violence.

Palestinians have repeatedly barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque there, and hurled stones, firebombs and fireworks at the police.

Israeli troops also clashed with Palestinians in the West Bank on Wednesday.

Disguised as Palestinian protesters, the Israeli infiltrating team was caught on camera by several journalists in the vicinity of the illegally-built Israeli settlement of Beit El near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

The Palestinian security services are continuing close coordination with their Israeli counterparts, say Israeli sources.