An Israeli soldier and a woman have been killed, and two others injured in separate stabbing incidents in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank, Israeli police have said.

Monday's incidents came amid continuing tension in parts of Israel and the occupied territories following the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli soldiers last Wednesday.

On Monday evening, a Palestinian man stabbed three Israelis at the entrance of the Alon Shvut settlement in the West Bank, Israeli police said, adding that the attacker was shot dead by a guard.

A 25-year-old Israeli woman died in the incident and the other two victims have been hospitalised for moderate injuries.

Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Jerusalem, said that all of those stabbed in the West Bank were Israelis.

"One of the guards stationed at the entrance shot the attacker," he said. "There are conflicting reports whether the Palestinian attacker was killed or is being treated in hospital."

"Settlements are gated communities with armed guards and high walls with high protection," our correspondent said.

Israeli media, quoting security sources, identified the attacker as Maher Hamdi Hashalamun, 30, from the southern Israeli city of Hebron.

The suspect reportedly had served four and a half years in prison for throwing a fire bomb at Israeli security forces.

Police spokesperson Luba Samri said: "A car stopped at the hitchhiking stop at the entrance to Alon Shvut, the driver got out of the car and stabbed three civilians who were standing there."

Soldier stabbed

Earlier on Monday, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier near a train station in Tel Aviv. The soldier, reported to be in his twenties, died of his wounds in hospital late on Monday night.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, said officers had arrested the Tel Aviv attacker, who had stabbed the soldier several times, adding that he was a Palestinian from the town of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

"He is currently under interrogation," Rosenfeld said.

Speaking in New York, Ron Prosor, the permanent representative of Israel to the UN, condemned what he called the terrorist attacks on Israelis.

"This [UN] institution has not uttered a word denouncing these incidents," he said.

He also criticised European countries for their inaction over the attacks.

Prosor blamed the Palestinian Authority (PA) for "adding fuel to the fire by spreading hatred against Israel".

"These attacks are the result of years of anti-Israeli indoctrination," he said, condemning the PA for not denouncing the incidents.

'They will not succeed'

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, speaking in parliament after the Tel Aviv incident said: "Terror ... is being directed at all parts of the country for a simple reason: The terrorists, the inciters, want to drive us from everywhere.

"As far as they are concerned, we should not be in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or anywhere. I can promise you one thing: They will not succeed. We will continue to fight terror... and we will defeat it together," he said.

Netanyahu is expected to convene a security consultation meeting with the Israeli defence minister and interior minister later on Monday.  

Ongoing unrest has been triggered by Muslim fears of Jewish encroachment at the sacred site where the Al-Aqsa mosque stands, a hilltop plateau known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The fatal shooting of an Israeli Arab by a policeman on Saturday in the Israeli Arab town of Kfar Kana gave a new impetus to the tensions, after the release of a video that appeared to show the man backing away from police when he was shot.

Since Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, Jewish worshippers have been allowed to visit, but not pray, at Haram al-Sharif.

On Saturday, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in central Jerusalem, killing two Israelis. Police shot the driver dead.
(Al Jazeera)