An Israeli woman has been killed and three other people wounded in separate stabbing incidents in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank, Israeli police have said.
Monday's incidents came amid continuing tension in parts of Israel and the occupied territories following the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli soldiers last Wednesday.
On Monday evening, a Palestinian man stabbed three Israelis at the entrance of the Alon Shvut settlement in the West Bank, Israeli police said, adding that the attacker was shot dead by a guard.
A 25-year-old Israeli woman died in the incident and the other two victims have been hospitalised for moderate injuries.
Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Jerusalem, said that all of those stabbed in the West Bank were Israelis.
"One of the guards stationed at the entrance shot the attacker," he said. "There are conflicting reports whether the Palestinian attacker was killed or is being treated in hospital."
"Settlements are gated communities with armed guards and high walls with high protection," our correspondent said.
Israeli media, quoting security sources, identified the attacker as Maher Hamdi Hashalamun, 30, from the southern Israeli city of Hebron.
The suspect reportedly had served four and a half years in prison for throwing a fire bomb at Israeli security forces.
Police spokesperson Luba Samri said: "A car stopped at the hitchhiking stop at the entrance to Alon Shvut, the driver got out of the car and stabbed three civilians who were standing there."
Soldier stabbed
Earlier on Monday, a Palestinian stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli soldier near a train station in Tel Aviv, according to the police.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, said officers had arrested the Tel Aviv attacker, who had stabbed the soldier several times, adding that he was a Palestinian from the town of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
"He is currently under interrogation," Rosenfeld said.
According to a witness, who talked to Israeli radio, the attacker, ran in the direction of Levanda Street after the incident.
"I chased him, and came back and saw the soldier writhing on the ground," the witness said.
Soldier in grave condition
A spokeswoman at the Tel Aviv hospital where the wounded soldier is being treated described his condition as grave, the AP news agency reported. He is reported to be in his twenties.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, speaking in parliament after the Tel Aviv incident said: "Terror ... is being directed at all parts of the country for a simple reason: The terrorists, the inciters, want to drive us from everywhere.
"As far as they are concerned, we should not be in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or anywhere. I can promise you one thing: They will not succeed. We will continue to fight terror... and we will defeat it together," he said.
Netanyahu is expected to convene a security consultation meeting with the Israeli defence minister and interior minister later on Monday.
Ongoing unrest has been triggered by Muslim fears of Jewish encroachment at the sacred site where the Al-Aqsa mosque stands, a hilltop plateau known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The fatal shooting of an Israeli Arab by a policeman on Saturday in the Israeli Arab town of Kfar Kana gave a new impetus to the tensions, after the release of a video that appeared to show the man backing away from police when he was shot.
Since Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, Jewish worshippers have been allowed to visit, but not pray, at Haram al-Sharif.
On Saturday, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in central Jerusalem, killing two Israelis. Police shot the driver dead.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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