Three new stabbings in Jerusalem

Three new stabbings in Jerusalem and a car attack spread more fear among Israelis yesterday as Palestinian unrest showed little sign of slowing after nearly two weeks of violence.

Frustrated Palestinian youths have defied president Mahmud Abbas as well as an Israeli security crackdown by rioting in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, while 18 stabbings having targeted Jews since October 3.

There have been warnings of the risk of a full-scale Palestinian uprising, or third intifada. Stabbing attacks have killed two Israelis and wounded around 20.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "knife terror will not defeat us" as he addressed parliament amid Palestinian unrest and a wave of stabbing attacks targeting Jews.

Netanyahu spoke as a new session of parliament was opened, saying Israel had overcome previous waves of bombings, a reference to earlier Palestinian uprisings or intifadas.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki yesterday accused Israel of seeking to spark "a third intifada", as violence again flared in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

"(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu wants to instigate a third intifada. He wants to avoid problems that he is facing in the political and diplomatic arena, where he has failed miserably," Malki told AFP in Vienna.

In yesterday's first stabbing, an 18-year-old Palestinian identified as Mustafa al-Khatib attacked a policeman with a knife at an entrance to Jerusalem's Old City and was shot dead by security forces.