The spike in violence between Palestinians and Israelis shows no signs of abating, with three stabbing attacks reported Thursday.
Two Israelis were assaulted within about an hour of each other Thursday, authorities said.
In Tel Aviv, a female Israeli soldier was stabbed with a screwdriver, allegedly by a Palestinian. Another soldier shot the attacker dead, Israel police spokeswoman Luba Samri told CNN. The attack left four people lightly wounded, including the soldier.
In the Kiryat Arba settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron, an Israeli man was in serious condition after being stabbed in the stomach, Samri said. Israeli security forces are still looking for that attacker.
Earlier Thursday, a Palestinian stabbed an ultra-Orthodox Jewish student, 25, in Jerusalem, wounding him seriously, police said. A 19-year-old Palestinian from the Shuafat refugee camp has been arrested in that attack at a light rail station near Jerusalem’s main police headquarters.
These are the latest in a series of knife and gun attacks on Israelis, many concentrated in Jerusalem, the city that both sides claim as their capital. Four Israelis were killed in two attacks last week.
Anger also is boiling among Palestinians over a string of deaths at the hands of Israeli security forces, attacks by Jewish settlers and restrictions imposed by Israel on access to a Jerusalem holy site.
But the violence has spread beyond Jerusalem and the West Bank, the historical hot spots.
A Palestinian assailant stabbed an Israeli soldier and grabbed his gun Wednesday in Kiryat Gat, an Israeli city roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Tel Aviv, police said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday he doesn’t want the situation to escalate. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a day earlier to take strong action and defeat what he called a “wave of terror.”
On Thursday, Netanyahu asked all Knesset members and ministers to refrain from visiting the Jerusalem holy site that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, an Israeli government official told CNN.
Police had been asked to deny them entry in an effort to calm tensions, the official said.
Holy site at heart of unrest
Because of the violence, Israel announced Sunday it was reinstating restrictions on access to Jerusalem’s Old City.
Muslim men under the age of 50 will be prevented from attending prayers at what they call the Noble Sanctuary. Another security assessment will be made before Friday prayers, Israeli police said.
Palestinian protesters have repeatedly clashed with Israeli security forces in and around the complex in recent weeks.
The move by Israeli authorities to prevent Muslim men under 50 from attending prayers at the site angered Palestinian leaders. It followed an attack Saturday in which two Israelis were killed.
Attacks on both sides
The soldier who was stabbed Wednesday in Kiryat Gat was lightly wounded, Israeli authorities said, and police killed the attacker.
Also Wednesday, a Jewish man suffered light injuries in a stabbing by an Arab woman in Jerusalem’s Old City, police said. The man shot the woman, who was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
In the West Bank, a gun attack by Israeli settlers in Beit Sahour, a town east of Bethlehem, left two Palestinians hospitalized with serious wounds, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. One victim was shot with a live bullet in the chest and the other with rubber bullets in his feet, the agency said. Israeli police said they were aware of the incident.
In all, the Palestinian Red Crescent reports that 399 Palestinians were wounded Wednesday in incidents in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Protesters clash with soldiers
Farther north, hundreds of Palestinian protesters clashed with the Israel Defense Forces near the West Bank settlement of Beit El. Video of the arrests of at least two Palestinians showed uniformed Israeli soldiers and plainclothes men beating the detainees.
“There was a violent riot of 350 Palestinians who were hurling firebombs and rocks, rolling burning tires and shooting fireworks at the IDF forces. The forces reported hearing live fire from them,” an Israeli military spokesman told CNN. He said one of the men was shot before being detained and taken in for questioning.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces arrested two Palestinians during the skirmishes. At least 171 Palestinians were wounded in the clashes, it said.