Biden arrives in Israel, as attacks take place in Tel Aviv area, east Jerusalem

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden landed in Tel Aviv for a two-day visit late Tuesday afternoon, while attacks took place in a Tel Aviv suburb, east Jerusalem and Jaffa, as part of the ongoing wave of unrest.

Biden was received at the Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport on Tuesday afternoon by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and the Israeli ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer.

No official ceremony was held at his reception, and Biden made his way to Jaffa to the Peres Center for Peace to a special gathering with former Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Two stabbing attacks took place in Jaffa while Biden had attended the meeting, killing at least one Israeli and injuring at least five.

Two more attacks took place shortly before Biden landed in Tel Aviv, one in Petach Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, and another one in east Jerusalem.

An Israeli man was moderately wounded and his attacker, whose identity is not yet know, was shot and killed in the first attack. Two Israeli policemen were shot and seriously wounded, and their attacker shot and killed, in east Jerusalem, according to the Israeli police.

The vice president's visit is mainly aimed to close a 10-year defense aid plan, consisting of just over three billion U.S. dollars in aid annually as well as cooperation on joint projects, mainly to do with missile defense systems.

Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday morning, and the two are set to make statements to the press.

He will later meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and travel to Ramallah and meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday afternoon. Biden will depart from Tel Aviv on Thursday morning.

Biden is also expected to discuss recent developments in the region with Netanyahu, including the fight against the Islamic State and the situation in Syria.

However, the U.S. official is not set to introduce any new initiatives to renew the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, despite the ongoing wave of unrest which claimed the lives of 27 Israelis and more than 170 Palestinians since October.

Despite of this, U.S. media reported on Monday that the White House is still keeping efforts to reviving the peace talks alive. According to the report, Obama would outline the plan at his next appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

It also takes place after what seems to be another hit to the rocky relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The White House expressed its "surprise" on Monday after finding out from media reports that Netanyahu turned down an invitation to meet with Obama on March 18, amid his planned trip to Washington to take part of conference hosted by AIPAC, a central pro-Israel lobby.

Netanyahu's office refuted the claims early Tuesday, several hours before Biden's visit, saying Israeli ambassador to U.S. Ron Dermer told U.S. officials on Friday there's a "good chance" Netanyahu could not make the trip to Washington.

His office also said Netanyahu preferred not to travel to Washington at the height of the U.S. presidential primaries.

This is another rift in the already strained relations between the U.S. and Israeli leaders. They have also expressed disagreement over the nuclear deal reached with Iran last July, and the Israeli occupation and settlement construction, on lands slated to be part of a future Palestinian state, according to the two-state solution.

Another diplomatic incident occurred during Biden's 2010 visit to Israel, when authorities announced a massive construction plan in east Jerusalem, lands which Israel annexed in 1981 in a move not recognized by the international community. There are 300,000 Palestinians living in these territories.

The announcement was derided by Biden and the U.S. and Israeli relations cooled off for several months following the incident. Endit