Israeli emergency personnel and security forces gather around the body of an attacker at the scene of a shooting attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City’s New Gate, on March 9, 2016 (AFP Photo/Ahmad Gharabli)
Two Palestinians opened fire at cars near Jerusalem’s old city, wounding one man before police shot them dead on Wednesday, the force said, as violence surged during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
The incidence began when gunfire ran out near a commuter bus, though no one was hurt and the vehicle was not hit, a police spokesman said.
Soon after in the occupied West Bank, the military said that Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who attempted to stab them.
A day before, a Palestinian went on a stabbing spree on the beachfront in Tel Aviv killing an American tourist and wounding 12 tourists.
The separate attacks have taken place shortly before or after Biden’s arrival on Tuesday to meet with Palestinian and Israeli authorities.
On Twitter, the vice president called it a “tragic attack … taking the life of an American” and said “there is no justification for such acts of terror”. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian authorities.
The vice president “condemned in the strongest possible terms the brutal attack which occurred in Jaffa during his meeting with president Peres,” his office said.
The US State Department identified the dead American as Taylor Allen Force, a 29-year-old Texas native and army veteran who was on a trip to Israel organized by Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Management.
A police spokesman said there was “heightened security across Jerusalem”.
Since October, Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 179 Palestinians, 121 of whom Israel claims were assailants. Most others were shot dead during violent protests.
After several days in which the violence largely subsided, a series of attacks erupted after Biden arrived in Israel on Tuesday.
Israel’s national police chief said he saw no direct connection between Biden’s trip and the surge in attacks.
Biden was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah later.
U.S. officials said Biden would confer with Netanyahu about a new 10-year military aid package to Israel currently under negotiation, as well as the situation in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. They warned against any expectations of advance on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, stalled since 2014, in Biden’s meetings with Netanyahu and Abbas.
The past five months of bloodshed have been fueled by several factors, including a dispute over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory.