Israelis stabbed in West Bank, Tel Aviv

A Palestinian man was shot by a private security guard after stabbing three Israelis at a West Bank bus stop outside Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

A young Israeli woman was killed and the two other victims injured, medics said.

"Paramedics confirmed the death of a young woman," emergency services said of the incident, which took place in the Alon Shvut settlement in the southern West Bank.

The West Bank attack came shortly after a similar stabbing (crime scene pictured below) left an Israeli soldier dead at a crowded Tel Aviv train station on Monday.

The alleged assailant, from the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, was captured immediately after the stabbing, according to police spokesman Rosenfeld.

Harsh response

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a harsh response to the violence, promising Monday to "use all means available" to stop the unrest that has shaken east Jerusalem, northern Israel and Tel Aviv in the past weeks.

Netanyahu also said he would pursue new measures, including the "destruction of instigators' homes," to bring an end to the strife. In a veiled threat, he also called on protesting Israeli-Arabs to simply move to Palestinian occupied territory.

"Believe me, we will put no difficulties in your path," he said.

Both attacks Monday followed several violent incidents between Israelis and Palestinians over recent days, including the fatal shooting by Israeli police of a young Israeli Arab man on Saturday. The youth's death sparked stone-throwing protests in several Arab towns.

Last Wednesday, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in central Jerusalem, killing two Israelis. The driver was shot dead by police.

Tensions have been high due to a conflict over access to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site held sacred by both Jews and Muslims. The violence also comes only months after this summer's 50-day war in the Gaza Strip, in which thousands of people, the vast majority of them Palestinians, were killed in fighting between Israel and Hamas.

glb/tj (AP, AFP, dpa)