JERUSALEM — A pair of stabbing and shooting attacks carried out by Palestinians killed five people Thursday — three Israelis, a Palestinian and an 18-year-old American from Massachusetts — in one of the deadliest days yet in a two month-long outburst of Israeli- Palestinian violence.
The attacks are part of wave of violence that erupted in mid-September over tensions surrounding a Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims. Palestinians accuse Israel of plotting to take over the hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims at the Noble Sanctuary — something Israel vehemently denies.
The Palestinians say the violence is rooted in frustration at decades of living under Israeli occupation. Israel accuses Palestinian leaders of inciting the unrest.
In the first attack Thursday, a knife-wielding man stabbed and killed two Israelis as several of them gathered for afternoon prayers on the second floor of an office building in Tel Aviv. Hours later, three were killed when a Palestinian motorist opened fire on a line of cars stuck in traffic in the West Bank.
