Two Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis killed five people Thursday, in one of the bloodiest days for Israel in a nearly two-month-long wave of Palestinian stabbings and other attacks.
In the first incident, a knife-wielding Palestinian man stabbed two Israelis in a Tel Aviv office building before being detained by bystanders and handed over to police, according to witnesses.
Israeli state radio said security forces were searching for another person who apparently assisted the attacker.
Later Thursday, three people, one confirmed as Israeli and another believed to be the assailant, were killed in a shooting and car attack near a Jewish settlement south of Jerusalem. A number of people were wounded.
The shooter opened fire and tried to flee the scene before "intentionally" ramming his car into a group of pedestrians, according to the Israeli army. The military said security forces shot at the attacker, "identifying a hit."
A wave of violence has left at least 15 Israelis dead following knife and other attacks by Palestinians over the past month-and-a-half. More than 80 Palestinians, most of them assailants, according to police, have been killed by security forces at scenes of assaults and in violent protests in the West Bank and Gaza.
A Jerusalem holy site known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to Jews as the Temple Mount has been at the heart of the violence. The main Islamic organization in Israel, the Islamic Movement in Israel has been behind a campaign alleging that Israel is trying to take over the site. Israeli officials have banned the organization, accusing it of inciting violence.
