LIVE BLOG: The Third Intifada - the unrest continues

Israel's security cabinet has authorised police to seal off Palestinian sectors of East Jerusalem, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released early Wednesday.

"The security cabinet decided several measures to combat terrorism, notably authorising police to seal off or impose a curfew on parts of Jerusalem in case of friction or incitement to violence," the statement said.

A gun attack on a bus and a car and knife assault in Jerusalem on Tuesday killed at least two people and wounded five in two separate incidents, Israeli authorities said.

It was the bloodiest violence in Jerusalem since the current wave of unrest began at the start of October and the first time an attack has seen gunfire on a bus.

A 60-year-old was killed and four people wounded in the bus attack in a Jewish neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, while the attackers were also killed, medics and police said.

Israeli media reports said one of the attackers used a gun and the other a knife.

In the car and knife attack that saw someone drive into a bus stop and exit with a knife in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood, at least one person was killed and one lightly wounded, medics said.

The attacker was also wounded.

The Jerusalem attacks came after a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a passerby north of Tel Aviv before being detained by civilians in the area.

The United States on Tuesday condemned the latest round of deadly "terrorist attacks" on Israeli civilians by Palestinian attackers and called for calm.

Secretary of State John Kerry was reacting after two Israelis were killed when a gunman and two men with knives attacked passengers on a Jerusalem bus.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms possible the terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians," Kerry told reporters.

"Naturally, we mourn the loss of any life, no matter who it is, but this violence and any incitement to violence has got to stop," he warned. 

"We continue to stress the importance of all - all - persons of responsibility to condemn the violence on either side, and to avoid provocative statements.

"I continue to urge all sides to take affirmative steps to restore calm and I will stay in very close touch with leaders in the region in the days ahead."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel on Tuesday to carry out a "serious review" on whether its security forces are resorting to excessive force in clashes with Palestinians.

Ban finds "the apparent excessive use of force by Israeli security forces" to be "troubling," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters as violence continued in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

This "demands serious review as it only serves to exacerbates the situation leading to a vicious cycle of needless bloodshed," he said.

The UN chief was due to sit down with Security Council envoys for a luncheon meeting on Tuesday to discuss mounting Israeli-Palestinian violence.

A ministerial-level meeting of the Security Council on the crisis in the Middle East is scheduled for 22 October.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a special Knesset session on Tuesday that his country would "cut off" the hand of any aggressors.

"Israel will settle scores with those who are killing and those who are encouraging them," Netanyahu said during a memorial for assassinated right-wing minister Rehavam Zeevi. "Anyone who raises their hand against us will have their hand cut off."

He warned that Israel was facing a "long struggle against terrorism" that the "current wave of terrorism is same that we saw 14 years ago," referring to the Second Intifada.

"We are focused on our mission, to fight the inciters and the murderers," Netanyahu said. "The actions that are taken will make the message clear to the other side that terrorism doesn't pay."

"I will not hesitate to use all the tools at our disposal in order to restore calm.

"Leaders need must have courage to stand up to extremists," he added. "We do not harm innocent people. And if you take the law into your own hands, you will pay for it."

Netanyahu called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to "stop lying" and to "stop incitement coming from the Palestinian Authority, both in regards to the Temple Mount and in regards to legitimate self-defence as exercised by Israel."

"Israel is strong, and it will be here forever, whether our enemies like it or not."

A meeting of the security cabinet in Jerusalem is expected to discuss the possibility of boosting local police forces in Jerusalem with soldiers from the Homefront Command and Military Police, a senior Jerusalem official to Haaretz. Ministers at the emergency meeting are expected to approve roadblocks on the roads leading to the Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem.

Suspect vehicles entering in and out of the neighbourhood will be inspected, but traffic will not be fully halted.
 

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces were ongoing near the Erez crossing on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, east of Gaza City, on Tuesday 13th October.

Middle East Eye understands that around 40 people have been injured by tear gas and gunfire.

The identity of one of the two Israelis killed in a stabbing attack in Armon Hanatziv in East Jerusalem has been cleared for publication by Israeli officials.

Haim Haviv, 78, from Jerusalem was killed on a bus by a Palestinian attacker. His wife Shoshana was seriously wounded in the attack, and taken to Hadassh-Ein Kerem Hospital.  
 

Haneen Zoabi has told Middle East Eye's reporter Jonathan Cook that Netanyahu intentionally misrepresented her remarks by suggesting she had supported violent attacks within Israel/Palestine.

“I was arguing the opposite: that Palestinians in the occupied territories need to concentrate on a popular, non-violent intifada as a way to raise their morale and liberate themselve," she siad.

“The stabbings we see every day are an expression of individual Palestinians’ sense of frustration and hopelessness. The attacks will end when Palestinians collectively find a better way to resist.”

Of the attacks on her and the Islamic Movement, whom Netanyahu has attempted to ban, she said: “Netanyahu is falling back on his favourite trick – creating an enemy to generate fear among his followers. He has lost the issue of Iran, so now he needs me and the Islamic Movement.”

“His hysterical aggression really reflects the fact that he is growing ever more politically impotent.”
 

An estimated 50,000 demonstrators took to the streets of the northern Israeli city of Sakhnin in the past hour, protesting against Israeli policies towards Palestinians.

The protest, which is thought to be one of the biggest demonstrations ever held by Palestinian citizens of Israel, came at the end of a day of strikes amonst Palestinian activists in Israel that saw shops closed and people refusing to work. 

One of the organisers, Muneeb Tarabeh, told Middle East Eye that Tuesday's march is a reaction to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and policies, particularly the latest incursions at the al-Aqsa Mosque complex, called the Temple Mount by Jews. 

"The demonstration today is proof that the Palestinian people still stick to their principles and won't give up their rights," Tarabeh said. 

Updated each from the Chairman of the Monitoring Committee Mr. Mazen Ghanayem and heads of political parties and movements. The master of the festival by the municipal People's Committee Munib Tarabay

Attended by young people, Knesset members and Muslim and Christian leaders, the protest was oranised by local municipal committees and the Follow-Up Committee for Palestinian citizens of Israel. 

A funeral was held on Tuesday afternoon for 60-year-old Yishaya Krashevsky who was killed hours earlier in a car attack at a West Jerusalem bus stop.

Krashevsky, who has been described in some media reports as a rabbi, was killed after a Palestinian man, identified by local media as Alaa Abu Jamal, rammed his car into a bus station and then stabbed several bystanders. 

Palestinian medical officials have told Haaretz that dozens of Palestinian protesters have been injured in clashes this afternoon with the Israeli security forces at the Erez Crossing in northern Gaza

More than 40 have reportedly been taken to Gaza hospitals. 

Here is a video of Malchai Yisrael steet in West Jerusalem on Tuesday after a Palestinian man rammed a car into a bus station before reportedly stabbing bystanders.

The Palestinian, identified by Ma'an News Agency as Alaa Abu Jamal, was shot by Israeli police after he slammed his car and then allegedly stabbed at least four pedestrians. 

An Israeli man, identified by the Jerusalem Post as 60-year-old Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky, reportedly died of wounds sustained when the car hit him in the attack. 

Jamal reportedly later died from his injuries.