Jerusalem was shaken by its first stabbing in two weeks Friday as violence intensified in the occupied West Bank with fresh clashes and knife attacks in a surge of Palestinian unrest.
A Palestinian stabbed and lightly wounded an American tourist in Jerusalem, where the wave of violence first erupted a month ago over the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a highly sensitive site sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
The 23-year-old Palestinian assailant was shot dead, while a bystander was injured when security forces opened fire on the assailant, police said.
Jerusalem had been calm in recent days as Israel clamped down on weeks of unrest with a massive boost of security forces and increased checkpoints, but violence has shifted to the occupied West Bank with daily clashes and stabbings.
Many fear the surge of unrest heralds a new intifada, or uprising, against Israel by a generation gripped by despair and anger over decades of occupation and stalled peace efforts.
In the city of Nablus, two Palestinians allegedly tried to stab members of Israeli forces guarding a major checkpoint, and were shot, police said. One died and the other was wounded and arrested.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, in the volatile city of Hebron, hundreds of youths lobbed stones, firebombs and burning tyres at Israeli soldiers who hit back with tear gas and rubber bullets, according to an AFP journalist.
Violent clashes also erupted in Ramallah where an AFP journalist reported an Israeli army jeep hit a crowd of protesters, injuring a young man.
Soldiers sprayed tear gas at medics attempting to reach him, before arresting the youth.
The Palestinian health ministry reported eight youths were wounded by gunfire, and another was hit with a rubber bullet in Ramallah.
In the blockaded Gaza Strip, where 17 Palestinians have died in clashes in recent weeks, protesters clashed with Israeli forces along the northern and eastern borders.
Knife attacks, shootings and protests have become near daily occurrences since simmering tensions over the status of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound boiled over. The violence has left nine Israelis dead.
The deaths of the latest attackers took the number of Palestinians killed in the recent unrest to 64, including many shot in anti-Israeli protests.
One Israeli Arab attacker has also been shot dead.
One of the alleged attackers, a 13-year-old Palestinian, appeared in court on Friday where he was charged with attempted murder for a knife attack against two Israeli schoolboys.