Palestinian stabs resident in central Israeli city

Golan Gabai witnessed the first of three attacks in Jerusalem.

The unrest worsened with the killing of four Israelis earlier this month.

Frustrated Palestinian youths have defied president Mahmud Abbas as well as an Israeli security crackdown by taking part in violent protests in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, while 18 stabbings have targeted Jews since October 3.

A few of the attacks have been carried out by members of Israel’s Arab minority.

Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary general Saeb Erekat lashed out at Netanyahu after his parliament speech, saying “executions” and harassment from Jewish settlers have exacerbated the violence. “We are anxious all the time”.

Tuesday’s toll was heaviest in Jerusalem, where three people were killed. A few eight Israelis and 27 Palestinians have died in a month of Israeli-Palestinian unrest.

However, he attacked another Israeli Jew whom he thought was an Arab because of his Middle Eastern appearance.

The 22-year-old victim was moderately wounded.

The video included staged scenes of Hamas ambushes, and struck a chilling note with its montages of violent terrorist attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, rocket launchings and gruesome battlefield scenes. The army said it was using “riot dispersal means” against the crowd.

Benedetta Berti, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said repeated attacks represent a “serious escalation”.

A wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank has spread to Gaza in recent days, with Palestinians staging protests along the border. Over the weekend, nine Palestinians in Gaza, including a mother and her 2-year-old child, were killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence.

With the worst unrest in years in Israel and the Palestinian territories showing no signs of abating, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a security cabinet meeting for 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) to discuss what police said would be new operational plans. One of the assailants was killed, an ambulance service spokesman said, and the other captured.

In a separate, near-simultaneous attack, another assailant rammed a vehicle into a bus station before stabbing bystanders. One Israeli was killed, police said. At least 28 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 12 identified by Israel as attackers and the rest in clashes between stone-throwers and Israeli troops.

Palestinian medics say five people have been wounded by Israeli gunfire, two of them seriously.

“I saw one person stabbing while the other sat down in the driver’s seat and tried to hijack the bus”, Gabai told Channel 2 TV. Medical units asserted more than 15 people were injured in the attack.

It follows a series of deadly attacks this morning.

Adding to a growing sense of Israeli public insecurity, two Palestinians shot and stabbed passengers on a bus in Jerusalem, killing two and injuring four, police said. The rumours ignited clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian activists who hurled stones and firebombs at them from inside the mosque, and the violence has spread.