Israeli Soldier Killed in Beersheva Bus Station Attack

A Palestinian attacker armed with a gun and a knife has killed an Israeli soldier and wounded other ten people in a bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva.

Israeli police said the attacker was killed.

Eight Israelis have died in attacks by lone Palestinians this month. More than 40 Palestinians, including several attackers, have been killed.

The upsurge began amid tensions at a flashpoint holy site in East Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities have imposed tighter restrictions in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and there have been clashes with Palestinian protesters.

Israel has begun erecting a16ft high concrete barrier between the Palestinian district of Jabal Mukaber in East Jerusalem and the neighboring Jewish Armon Hanatziv.

Israeli officials in Jerusalem insisted the wall was a temporary measure in an area “where there is a history of rock and Molotov cocktail throwing at Jewish homes and vehicles”.

Secretary of State John Kerry is to meet Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and, separately, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, this week in a bid to help restore calm.

The attack on the Central Bus Station in Beersheva came on Sunday evening, October 18.

Initial reports said there had been a second attacker, who was critically wounded, but he is now believed to be an Eritrean migrant.

The city’s Soroka Hospital said it was treating 10 shooting victims – two who arrived in a critical condition, two with serious wounds and the rest with moderate to light wounds.

Among the injured, all said to be in their 20s, were at least four police officers.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military removed Jewish worshippers it said had illegally entered a religious site in the occupied West Bank.

Thirty Israelis arrived at Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus and were assaulted by Palestinians before being handed over to Israeli forces by Palestinian police, reports say.