Four Arabs stabbed in southern Israel

An Israeli man stabbed four Arabs early Friday in the southern town of Dimona, in revenge for attacks against Israelis, police said on Friday.

The man first stabbed a Bedouin man, a municipality worker, moderately wounding him in his abdomen. He then fled the scene, and stabbed three Palestinians he came across, injuring one moderately and two others lightly.

Police managed to arrest the suspect after canvassing the area.

The Walla! news website reported the suspect said they were revenge attacks against Palestinians.

There were four Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis on Thursday, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Afula in northern Israel and the Jewish West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron. One Palestinian attacker was shot dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to calm the Israeli public on Thursday evening, saying there was "no magic solution" for the wave of terror acts. He also blamed Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Movement for their incitement to violence.

"We will take aggressive measures against the Islamic Movement in Israel and against other inciters. No one is immune," Netanyahu said during a press conference on Thursday.

Israeli security forces remained on high alert on Friday, the Muslim weekly day of prayer, banning Palestinian men under 50 from entering the flashpoint holy site of Temple Mount or Noble Sanctuary.

The move is a common procedure aimed at barring youngsters who may provoke clashes at the site.

The Israeli police also said on Thursday it would deploy metal detectors at the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem, and Netanyahu told lawmakers not to visit the site in order to prevent another escalation.

In the West Bank, alert remained high as well. Thousands of troops were deployed after the Hamas movement ordered a "day of rage."

The current wave of violence kicked off last month amid clashes on the holy Jerusalem hilltop site, a holy site to both Jews and Muslims. Jews are allowed to visit but not pray there, but some hardliners seek to change that by making high-profile visits to it.

As Palestinian decried what they say is Israel's attempts to take over the east Jerusalem site, violence spread throughout east Jerusalem to the West Bank and now across Israel. Four Israelis and eight Palestinians were killed in the past week.

More than 800 Palestinians have been injured in clashes in the past several days in the West Bank as well as in east Jerusalem.

Arab Israelis, who remained in Israel after 1948 and became citizens that constitute 20 percent of Israel's population, have also started protesting against Israeli authorities amid the situation in al-Aqsa and the West Bank. They launched protests in major Arab cities like Jaffa in central Israel and Nazareth in northern Israel. Dozens of Arabs were arrested in these protests. Endit