Roundup: 5 people killed in deadliest day in current wave of violence in Israel

Five people were killed in the attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank territories on Thursday, in the deadliest day since the start of the current weeks-long wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

The first attack took place at 2 pm local time (GMT 1200), as a Palestinian stabbed Israelis praying at a makeshift chapel in an office building in southern Tel Aviv, killing two - Aharon Yesayev (32) and Reuven Aviram (50) - and injuring one moderately.

Bystanders managed to overpower the attacker, and he was taken into police custody. The attacker was identified by the Israeli police as Riad Mahmoud Al-Masalma, a 36-year-old from the Palestinian village of Dura, south of Hebron in the West Bank.

The assailant had been working in a nearby restaurant, and had recently received permits to work in Israeli territories, Israeli media outlets reported. According to the Shin Bet security agency, he had no prior record of security-related offenses against Israelis.

About two hours later, three people were killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank, as a Palestinian fired an Uzi submachine gun at cars on a road near the Jewish settlement of Alon Shvut, southwest of Jerusalem.

The victims in this attack are Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old ultra-Orthodox seminary student from the United States, Yaakov Don, a 49-year-old settler living in Alon Shvut, and 24-year-old Shadi Arafa, a Palestinian resident of Hebron. Four people were lightly injured in the attack.

Israeli soldiers shot and lightly wounded the Palestinian assailant, and he was taken into custody. According to the Ha'aretz daily, the assailant said he decided he wanted to perform the attack and bought the weapons several days ago.

Thursday's attacks were the first to take place in Israel and the West Bank territories since Friday, when two Jewish settlers were killed in a shooting attack south of Hebron. This is also the first attack in central Israel in two and a half weeks, when two attacks took place in Rishon Lezion, 8 km south of Tel Aviv, and in Netanya, 40 km north of the city.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu held security consultations on Thursday evening with officials from the military, police and the Shin Bet Security agency following the deadly attacks, according to a statement from his office.

Netanyahu, among others, discussed possible actions in the Hebron area, where most of the Palestinians who carried out attacks recently came from, according to the statement. It did not give any more details.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin connected the attacks in Israel to the terror attacks in Paris on Friday, in which 129 people were killed and hundreds injured, and the Russian plane crash in late October that killed more than 200 people, which Russian authorities confirmed as a terror attack.

"Our hearts are pained and broken. The pain is the same pain. The mourning is the same mourning in Tel Aviv, Paris and the Gush Etzion bloc, and in the Sinai (Peninsula)," Rivlin said, in a statement issued by his office.

"Fundamentalist Islamism is a danger to all free nations everywhere, and we must fight against it unequivocally," the Israeli President added.

The current wave of violence was sparked following clashes between Palestinians and Israelis over the flashpoint site of the al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem.

The violence then spread out throughout Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip territories.

Seventeen Israelis have died in recent weeks in lone-wolf stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks.

More than 80 Palestinians have died, some in clashes with Israeli security forces in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Others were alleged attackers who were gunned down by Israeli security forces and vigilante citizens after trying to carry out attacks.

Israel occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories in the 1967 Mideast War.

The Palestinians, who lack citizenship and wish to establish a Palestinian state, may also be driven by pessimism as the last round of talks to end the conflict ended in April 2014 without results, and as leaders of both sides blame each other for responsibility of the increasing violence. Enit