Israeli police said three Israelis were killed in separate stabbing incidents in Jerusalem Tuesday, including one where two men stabbed and shot passengers on a bus, AP reported. Earlier, two more stabbing attacks occurred in the city of Ra'anana.
The attacks are the latest to come amid spiraling violence, with stabbings by Palestinian on Israelis occurring on a near daily basis over the last two weeks.
Some 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli police and security forces in that time, including 10 identified by Israeli authorities as attackers, and the rest in clashes between stone-throwers and the Israeli military. Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded in these clashes, according to AP.
3 Israelis killed in terror attacks in Jerusalem this morning. 2 in bus attacked by terrorists, 1 near center of town attack.
In one of the incidents Tuesday morning, two attackers boarded a bus in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. One of them opened fire inside the vehicle, while the other began stabbing passengers, Haaretz and Al Jazeera reported. Two Israelis died in the attack.
One of the attackers was shot and killed and the other was apprehended, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Police officers at scene of attack in armon hanatziv. 1 terrorist shot and killed. Second captured. Area closed off
2 Israelis murdered in the 2 Terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. Police units patrolling areas to prevent attacks
Two separate attacks also took place on Tuesday in Ra'anana, a central city that is home to about 80,000 people.
Police said a 22-year-old Palestinian man from east Jerusalem stabbed a 32-year-old Israeli man who was waiting at a bus stop in Ra'anana's main thoroughfare, AP reported.
The Israeli sustained a minor chest wound, and the Palestinian was confronted and disarmed by passersby, police told Haaretz.
The second Ra'anana attack involved another man from east Jerusalem who stabbed people outside a hospital. One Israeli was seriously injured in that incident, and three more people had minor wounds, Haaretz reported.
Tuesday's incidents mark one of the worst days in the current outbreak of violence.
Israeli police closed major roads in and out of Jerusalem in response to the attacks, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency meeting of his Security Cabinet where police presented a plan aimed at halting the violence, AP said.
Luba Samri, a police spokesman, said a number of steps — including theclosure of east Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods and increasing the ease of getting gun licenses — were being considered by Israel's internal security minister.
Speaking at the scene of the bus attack, Jerusalem's Mayor Nir Barkat said new restrictions should be introduced on the city's Arab neighborhoods, the New York Times reported.
"We have to stop and place a curfew," Barkat said. "We must widen and upgrade the steps taken up until now."