Four Israelis were stabbed in separate attacks Monday, including a 70-year-old man who was seriously wounded in the northern coastal city of Netanya, while his 22-year-old Palestinian assailant was shot dead by police on the scene.
Authorities said, "A 22-year-old Palestinian from [the West Bank town of] Tulkarm stabbed a man in his 70s." "Police fired in the direction of the attacker and neutralized him."
Police said the attack came just hours after another Palestinian knifed several people, including an 80-year-old woman, near Tel Aviv, the latest incidents in more than a month of violence.
Eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings. Sixty-nine Palestinians have died by Israeli fire, including 43 who Israel says were involved in attacks or attempted attacks.
Earlier, three Israelis were stabbed in attacks near the central bus station in Rishon Letzion, about 10 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, a police statement said.
The victims were a 35-year-old man, who was stabbed in the torso and sustained severe wounds, an 80-year-old woman, who also sustained severe wounds, and a 26-year-old man who was stabbed in the leg with light injuries.
The attacker, a 19-year-old Palestinian from Hebron in the West Bank, stabbed two people on the pavement and a third in a clothes store, the statement added.
The violence was originally focused in and around Jerusalem, but moved to Hebron during the past week.
Israel says the outburst is the result of Palestinian incitement. Palestinians say the violence stems from a lack of hope for gaining independence after years of failed peace efforts.
The attacks erupted when rumors swept through Palestinian neighborhoods that Israel was planning to take over an east Jerusalem holy site sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Israel has constantly denied the rumors.
