An Israeli woman has been killed and three others wounded in two separate Palestinian knife attacks as months of unrest in Jerusalem spread across Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Monday's violence began in Tel Aviv, where a Palestinian teenager from the northern West Bank stabbed a 20-year-old soldier, leaving him in critical condition. The assailant fled but was arrested.
Hours later, another Palestinian attacked three Israelis outside Alon Shvut settlement in the southern West Bank, killing a young woman and wounding two other people before a security guard shot and critically wounded him.
The bloodshed took place after months of clashes and unrest in and around annexed east Jerusalem, which spread to Arab areas of Israel at the weekend after police shot dead a young Arab-Israeli during a routine arrest operation.
The European Union strongly condemned the attacks, with the office of EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini "extremely worried" by the current situation and warning it could further deteriorate "in the absence of political perspective".
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Since the northern summer, Israel has significantly increased its police presence on the streets in a bid to rein in the unrest, but has been unable to stop a growing number of attacks by lone Palestinians, most of them in Jerusalem.
But Monday's violence was further afield.
"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," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said of the incident in the southern West Bank.
A woman of about 25 was killed and two men were lightly to moderately wounded, medics said. Police said all three were Jewish settlers.
Their attacker, who was identified as Maher Hamdi al-Hashlamon, was shot and seriously wounded by the settlement's security guard. He was taken to a Jerusalem hospital, police said.
Palestinian security sources said Hashlamon was from the southern city of Hebron.
Earlier, a Palestinian teenager from a refugee camp in the northern West Bank stabbed an Israeli soldier outside a Tel Aviv train station before fleeing the scene. He was later arrested.
The soldier was critically wounded in the attack, which marked the first time Israel's hedonistic commercial capital has been affected by the current wave of violence.
"It was apparently an attack with nationalist motives. The suspect is a resident of the Nablus area," police spokeswoman Samri said.
The attacker was identified as 17-year-old Nureddine Abu Hashiyeh from Askar refugee camp near Nablus. His father, Khaled, said he was a painter and decorator by trade and had left for Tel Aviv on Sunday.
Meanwhile UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday appointed a five-member panel to investigate Israeli attacks on UN shelters in July and August, during the Gaza war, and the discovery of Hamas weapons at UN sites.
Israel maintains that Hamas militants were using the schools to store weapons and denied it had deliberately targeted the facilities, which were being used as shelters by Palestinian civilians during the 50-day war.
