USA teen Ezra Schwartz killed in Israel shooting

Four people were wounded in a stabbing attack in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat on Saturday in what police said bore the hallmarks of previous stabbings by Palestinians.

Israel is in the midst of a wave of terror attacks that has so far claimed the lives of 16 Israelis, a U.S. citizen, an Eritrean national and a Palestinian bystander in a series of near-daily stabbings, shootings or car-ramming attacks perpetrated by mainly Palestinian assailants.

Schwartz, who was involved in the youth group at Temple Israel in Sharon, was reportedly on his way back from bringing food to soldiers in the West Bank at the time of the attack.

Israel has suspended entry permits for Palestinian labourers and will limit the movement of Palestinians in an area of the West Bank south of Jerusalem following two attacks on Thursday that left five people dead.

Later, a Palestinian driving a taxi cab tried to run over Israelis east of Jerusalem, police said.

Israeli police said that a Bedouin man who was near the scene was beaten by a number of Israelis who thought he was the attacker.

Israeli security forces raided and shut down a Palestinian radio station accused of incitement in the West Bank city of Hebron, the army said Saturday, in the second such case this month. The Palestinians counter by saying it is a result of frustration from almost a half-century of occupation.

The station’s manager, Amjad Shawar, said more than 40 soldiers raided the station, seizing or destroying equipment.

The Israeli government is carrying out check-ups on even its own radio stations, Amir Oren, senior correspondent and columnist for Haaretz told RT.

Kerry last met with Netanyahu in Berlin in October to try to end a spate of bloodshed and stop what Washington regarded as provocative statements by Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the management of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque.

Analysts said it was worrying, as the perpetrator had a permit to work in Israel, was married with five children and had no previous criminal record.

Thursday’s Tel Aviv attack, inside an expansive office building in the middle of the day, in particular stoked Israeli fears that a full-fledged Palestinian uprising could erupt.