Jerusalem suffered its bloodiest day on Tuesday in a wave of unrest, with at least three people killed and many wounded in shooting and car-and-knife attacks on Israelis.
One of the attacks, which saw an assailant open fire on a bus, marked the first assault with a gun in Jerusalem in the two-week-old upsurge of Palestinian violence. The rising tide of unrest, which has seen a series of stabbing attacks and violent protests, has raised fears that a full-scale third Palestinian uprising, or intifada, could erupt.
In the first and second intifadas, in 1987-1993 and 2000-2005, hundreds were killed in near-daily violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
The bus attack saw one assailant with a pistol and another with two knives assault some 15 people travelling on an east Jerusalem bus, police said.
Two Israelis were killed, including a 60-year-old, while around 10 others were wounded, medics and police said. One of the attackers was shot dead while the other was wounded, police said.
“I was in my house and I heard between 20 and 30 shots between the police and the terrorists,” a man who lives in the area said, declining to give his name.
In another attack around the same time in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Jerusalem, an assailant drove a car into a group at a bus stop and exited with a knife.
At least one person was killed and eight wounded, medics said. The attacker was also wounded.
It was not clear if the attacks were coordinated.