Four people were stabbed, one critically, by an Israeli Arab near Gan Shmuel, in the Hadera area, on Sunday evening.The attacker, aged 20, tried to run his car into people waiting at a bus stop. He then got out and started stabbing them. He was captured by police.
The stabbings were the latest in a week of violent incidents. A Palestinian bomber bound for Jerusalem was severely injured when she detonated a gas canister after being stopped by a traffic officer near a West Bank checkpoint on Sunday morning. Earlier, a woman and her child were reportedly killed during Israeli airstrikes on Hamas weapon manufacturing targets in Gaza. An IDF spokesman said the action was in response to renewed rocket fire on Israel.
The critical injuries in the Hadera attack were sustained by a 19-year-old woman serving in the IDF, who was rushed to hospital after receiving "life-saving" treatment by Magen David Adom paramedics.
In the West Bank explosion, the bomber - who was known to the security forces - was stopped driving suspiciously near the settlement of Maale Adumim. She shouted "Allahu Akbar [God is Great]" before setting off the explosive.
The officer, Moshe Chen, suffered minor injuries.He was praised for averting a major terror attack by local police chief Rafi Cohen, who said he had no doubt that the woman had intended to drive to Jerusalem. "Had she arrived at a crowded place, the damage would have been much, much greater." Security agency Shin Bet said the woman was carrying letters praising Palestinian "martyrs".
On Saturday, Israeli police shot dead two Palestinian youths in clashes close to the Gaza border. Five Israelis were wounded in separate stabbing attacks in Jerusalem. Both Palestinian assailants were killed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to open a criminal investigation against Joint List MK Haneen Zoabi for, he said, calling for "a popular intifada" against Israel. Mr Netanyahu quoted Ms Zoabi as saying to a Hamas newspaper that "hundreds of thousands of worshippers should go to the Al-Aksa Mosque to stand up against Israel's conspiracy to condone violence against east Jerusalem residents".
Responding to Mr Netanyahu's move, she said she would continue her "just struggle for equality for all".
