3rd LD: 2 Israelis killed, 2 injured in Jerusalem stabbing and shooting attack

Two Israeli men were killed, two others injured on Saturday night in a stabbing and shooting attack that took place in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police said.

One of the dead men's wife is in serious condition and their two-year-old baby was lightly wounded.

A source from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office told Xinhua that following the recent attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will return from the United States on Sunday afternoon, and convene his top ministers for an urgent meeting in Jerusalem.

A Palestinian man stabbed two people, then took over one of his victims' gun and started shooting at passers-by in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israeli police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld said.

An Israeli policeman who arrived shortly afterwards shot dead the Palestinian attacker, Rosenfeld told Xinhua.

The Jewish couple in their 40s suffered critical injuries and were evacuated to Jerusalem hospitals. The husband was announced dead later on in the Sha'are Zedek hospital. Another victim died minutes later in the Haddasah hospital.

The two-year-old baby was wounded from a bullet in his leg, Zaki Heller, the spokesperson with Israeli Emergency Services Magen David Adom said.

According to the local Channel 10 news, the Jewish couple were making their way with their baby to pray at the Western Wall, a Jewish prayer site adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount (or Noble Sanctuary) compound.

Police forces are currently looking for a possible second militant who had possibly taken part in the attacks around east Jerusalem.

The attack comes two days after a Palestinian militant shot and killed an Israeli couple, who were driving in their vehicle in a West Bank road with their four children, who were not harmed in the attack.

Israeli authorities are still looking for the perpetrators of Thursday's attack, and have arrested seven Palestinians in the area of Nablus in the West Bank throughout Saturday.

There has been a mounting surge of violence in Jerusalem, especially in east Jerusalem, over the flashpoint holy site of Temple Mount.

Clashes have been going for weeks between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters, as the latter charge Jewish extremists are trying to change the status quo in the holy site.

Besides clashes, rocks and firebombs hurling have become a daily incident in Jerusalem's environs, as well as sporadic stabbing attacks, especially around Jerusalem's Old City.

Israel occupied the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War. The Palestinians seek to establish their own state on the occupied lands, with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Tensions between Jews and Arabs in the area increased amid the standstill in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian authority, as the last round of peace talks ended abruptly in April 2014. Endit