Roundup: U.S. tourist dies, over dozen Israelis injured in onslaught of attacks amid Biden visit

A U.S. tourist was killed and over a dozen of Israelis were injured in a slew of attacks, along with four dead Palestinian attackers, throughout Tuesday, amid the arrival of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to Israel and six months of raging violence.

The latest of the attacks took place in the Jaffa area, part of the Tel Aviv municipality, in several locations. An assailant managed to stab nearly a dozen people in different locations along the Jaffa and Tel Aviv coastline, before he was shot and killed by police forces, according to police spokeswoman Luba Samri. The attacker was identified as a 22-year old Arab Israeli from Qalqiliya, an Arab village in central Israel.

One person was killed in the Jaffa stabbing rampage, identified by police to be a 29-year-old U.S. tourist. Nine other people were injured in the incident, out of whom four seriously, four in moderate condition and one lightly. They were evacuated to hospitals nearby.

The attacks took place while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden took part of an event at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa, about 2 kilometers south of the sites of the attacks, along with former Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Additional security teams were sent to the Peres Center to help guard the Vice President amid the attacks, and the Tel Aviv Police announced it would boost its patrols in the Tel Aviv area late Tuesday.

Biden took notice of the attacks during the event, saying that "terrorism against innocent people is intolerable," according to a statement sent by a spokesperson for the Peres Center for Peace.

The U.S. official stressed the United States' "utter commitment to the security of Israel's and its citizens" and said he hoped to see progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Shimon Peres said Israel would continue to fight terrorism "with full force."

His two-day visit will focus on closing the details of a deal for a 10-year defense aid package, including an annual sum of 3.1 billion U.S. dollars and joint projects between the countries, chiefly among them the development of missile defense systems.

His visit will also include talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the situation in Syria and the fight against the Islamic State, and a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but there are no new peace initiatives on the table, in order to end the six-month wave of attacks, that claimed the lives of 28 Israelis and more than 170 Palestinians.

Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, an Israeli man in his 40s was stabbed and moderately wounded in Petach Tikva, a city east of Tel Aviv, the Israeli police said. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said police forces shot and killed the assailant, but other media reports suggested the victim of the attack managed to stab and kill his attacker.

Shortly afterwards, an assailant shot two policemen in east Jerusalem, wounding one critically and another moderately. Police forces pursuing him managed to shoot and kill him, according to the Israeli police.

A Palestinian woman was shot and killed by Israeli security forces earlier on Tuesday noon, after allegedly wielding a knife and attempting to carry out a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Security officials told the Walla! News website they do not believe there is a connection between the different attacks that occurred throughout the day.

Israeli leaders blame the Palestinian Authority for incitement to violence amid the wave of unrest which started in October, whereas the Palestinians say it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians wish to establish a state, in accordance with the two-state solution. Enditem