Trying to ease tensions, Kerry to meet with Netanyahu, Abbas

Police commander Yoram Halevy told journalists that the attacker entered the station with a gun and a knife before snatching another gun from one of his victims.

Also on Saturday, Ahmad Majdalani, member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee, called upon member countries of the UN Security Council to vote for sending global observers to the Palestinian territories.

Israel has deployed thousands of police, backed up by troops, to maintain order following a spate of attacks, mostly stabbings, by Palestinian assailants.

The attack on the Central Bus Station in Beersheva came on Sunday evening.

Israel tightened its grip on Palestinian communities on Sunday after several cities banned Arab labourers from working in schools and security forces started barricading a Palestinian neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli security forces have imposed tighter restrictions in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and there have been clashes with Palestinian protesters.

Two of the attacks took place in the West Bank city of Hebron, where the Palestinian assailants injured an Israeli soldier and a female paramilitary border police officer with knives before they were shot, according to the Israeli police and military. Kerry also plans to hold talks in the Middle East with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but no precise location has been announced.

Violence between Israelis and Palestinians continued unabated on Saturday.

Such funerals may soon be a thing of the past – Israel has warned that it may not hand over the bodies of those responsible for attacks to their families for burial.

Most of the attackers have been young Palestinians wielding knives and believed to be acting on their own, likely knowing they will probably be killed. They later told Israeli police Palestinians attacked them, accusing Palestinian security forces of participating in the fight.

Palestinians torched the site holy to Jews on Friday in an incident that threatened to further inflame tensions.

Earlier in the day, the PLO called on a United Nations rapporteur to investigate the Israeli killing of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as the growing violence is consuming more lives day by day. The others were Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Kerry made his statement the same time that Ha’aretz reported that settlement growth since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in 2009 has been the lowest in almost twenty years. Israel says they are disputed, and their final status must be determined in peace negotiations.

“‘Israel does not think global intervention [in] the Temple Mount would be helpful or contribute to stability, ‘ Danon added”.

“Forty-one Palestinians and seven Israelis have died in recent street violence, which was in part triggered by Palestinians’ anger over what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound”.

The shrine is under Palestinian control and off-limits to Israelis except on escorted trips organised by the army.