As deadly violence continues in Jerusalem and the West Bank, with several attacks against Israelis, including two in Tel Aviv, the EU warned against the “real risk’’ of further escalation and called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ‘’to show leadership to promote calm, encourage restraint and avoid actions which further fuel tensions.’’

‘’The continuing deadly violence in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, claiming lives of several people and injuring many more, poses a real risk of further escalation. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families,’’ EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.

She said the cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to de-escalate the situation and to restore order ‘’is crucially important.’’

‘’The perpetrators of the recent terror attacks against Israelis must be brought to justice,’’ she said.

‘’It is also imperative that Security Forces at all times prevent the loss of life. Israel must conduct a thorough investigation on the circumstances which have led to the death of Palestinians at the hand of Israeli Security Forces,’’ she added, stressing that ‘’the Israeli as well as the Palestinian people have the right to live in security. ‘’

Mogherini reiterated the EU's position that ‘’the status quo on the holy sites must not be altered.’’

‘She continued, ’the way to tackle the violence and unrest is for both sides to move quickly to restart a credible political process. The immediate priority is for the parties to agree on substantial steps which improve the situation on the ground and build a path back to final status negotiations.’’

‘’Ultimately, a negotiated two state solution is the only way to bring the lasting peace and security that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve,’’ she concluded.

Five Israelis were stabbed by a Palestinian man in central Tel Aviv on Thursday, hours after a similar attack left an Orthodox man seriously injured in Jerusalem.

The assailant was shot dead after attacking passers-by with a screwdriver opposite the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Police cordoned off the Begin junction, one of the busiest junctions in the city, fearing a second terrorist might be on the loose.

Hours earlier, a Yeshiva student was seriously wounded after being stabbed in the chest in the French Hill neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Paramedics who rushed to the scene said that the Israeli, a 25-year-old male, suffered wounds to his upper body. The victim was rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment.

The initial reports indicate that the incident occurred near the Israel Police national headquarters.

According to police, special forces on patrol nearby tackled the stabber and took him into custody.

The Shin Bet named the terrorist as Subhi Abu Khalifa, 19, a resident of the Shuafat Refugee Camp district. Abu Khalifa has no history of security arrests or offense. The Shin Bet has begun questioning him.

The stabbing is the fourth of its kind in the capital since October first and has resulted in heightened police security throughout flashpoint Arab neighborhoods and the Old City.

The spate of terror attacks on Israelis during the past week appeared to intensify as nine people were injured in five separate attacks on both sides of the pre-1967 border.

A week ago, an Israeli mother and father in their 30s were gunned down and killed in front of four of their children as they drove in the West Bank. According to a senior military official, the only reason the four children of the Henkin family did not duie in the attack is because the Palestinians shot in the car from opposite windows to very the parents’s deaths and had to retreat after hiting one another.

The same day, two Israelis were then stabbed to death in Jerusalem’s Old City. Meanwhile, two Palestinian teenagers were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

Tension has subsequently simmered, but Wednesday saw the violence explode once again. While last week’s attacks and low-level violence during the past month occurred almost exclusively in the West Bank and Jerusalem, two attacks yesterday were carried out within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. An Israeli man in his 20s suffered superficial stab wounds outside a shopping centre in the central city of Petach Tikva, near Tel Aviv, after a 25-year-old Palestinian from near Hebron alighted a bus and attacked him.

Meanwhile, in the southern city of Kiryat Gat, a Palestinian man attacked an IDF soldier with a knife and briefly stole his weapon before being shot dead by police.

Earlier Wednesday morning, an Israeli woman was lightly injured as she commuted from the West Bank near Bethlehem to Jerusalem, when her car was attacked by a Palestinian mob hurling rocks at her vehicle from close range. In Jerusalem itself, an 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man in his 30s in the Old City. However, the man was able to shoot the assailant who was seriously wounded. The attack happened just hours after Israeli authorities lifted temporary restrictions on Palestinians entering the Old City.

In the evening, two Israelis were lightly wounded after a 30-year-old Palestinian man rammed his vehicle into a military checkpoint near Ma’aleh Adumim in the West Bank. Border Police fired shots at the vehicle and apprehended the driver. In other incidents, soldiers prevented a stabbing in Jerusalem’s Abu Tor neighbourhood and rocks were thrown in Jaffa.

According to the senior military official, the modus operandi of the Palestinian terror attacks is the following : Palestinians scout and target to kill Israeli Jews by guns or knives including close head shots.

Israeli media reports say Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered police to ban government ministers and Knesset members from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to reduce the chances of further escalating violence.

The Temple Mount, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims, has been an emotive focal point for violence during the past few weeks. Palestinian youths have routinely barricaded themselves inside the al-Aqsa Mosque armed with firebombs, rocks and other projectiles and clashed with Israeli forces. Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that Israel does not wish to alter the status quo at the site, which sees Jewish prayer banned.

Maariv says that the move is an attempt by Netanyahu to “calm tempers,” while Haaretz speculates that he made his intentions clear over the issue to the security cabinet on Monday night. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas also appeared yesterday to attempt to calm tensions. He told Haaretz that although he supports a “popular, non-violent struggle,” that he opposes “all violence and use of weapons. I’ve made clear a number of times that I don’t want to return to the cycle of violence.” Abbas has previously issued incendiary rhetoric, including a slur that Israelis defile the Temple Mount with “filthy feet.”

While visiting the site of the fatal stabbing earlier this week that took the lives of two ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem's Old City, Opposition Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog called on Netanyahu to resign for being "a weak prime minister who performs well as a theater actor but poorly as a leader."

"Had we been in government, we would've known to calm the situation in Jerusalem a lot better," the opposition chief said.

Herzog said that the premier's edict banning lawmakers from Temple Mount should have been issued "months ago" so as to "remove extremists from the Temple Mount and stop politicians from going up there."

by Yossi Lempkowicz with EIPA