Three Israelis killed, two Palestinians shot dead, dozens injured

Stabbings and shootings within a two-hour period on Tuesday in Jerusalem and northern Israel have led to multiple casualties, Israeli police said.

One Israeli was killed and 16 injured on a bus in Jerusalem, Channel 2 TV reported, after two assailants opened fire and also stabbed passengers.

The two attackers were shot dead by police, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

In another part of Jerusalem, a man rammed a vehicle into a bus stop, then got out of his car and started stabbing bystanders with a butcher's knife.

One Israeli was killed and two others wounded, Channel 2 said.

In Ra'anana, a town north of Tel Aviv, two people stabbed bystanders at two separate locations.

A Palestinian from East Jerusalem in his early 20s moderately wounded at least one Israeli standing at the bus stop in Ra'anana, Rosenfeld said.

Civilian bystanders overpowered and beat the assailant until police arrived minutes later, witnesses said. The wounded Israeli and Palestinian attacker were taken to hospital, Rosenfeld said.

Hours later, a second Palestinian was either shot or beaten up in Ra'anana after stabbing and seriously injuring an Israeli woman, shouting "God is Great" in Arabic. 

On Monday alone there were four stabbing attacks in Jerusalem.

Four Israelis have been killed and many injured in a wave of Palestinian knife attacks this month.

Sixteen Palestinians from the West Bank and Jerusalem have been killed, but more than half of them have been attackers shot dead after or during attempts to stab Israelis. 

Others have been killed in clashes with Israeli security forces, who have used live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse demonstrators throwing stones and petrol bombs at soldiers and civilian motorists.

In the Gaza Strip, 11 Palestinians have been killed while storming the border fence with Israel and in an airstrike that was retaliation for Palestinian rocket attacks.

The violence comes 18 months after a last attempt at peace negotiations collapsed, and as Muslims fear Israeli plans to alter the status quo at a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site, which houses Al-Aqsa Mosque and also the ruins of the Biblical Jewish Temple. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied any plans to alter the status quo at the Temple Mount/Nobel Sanctuary and accused radical Muslim leaders of inflaming the region by spreading "wild lies."