Two Israelis stabbed to death in Tel Aviv

Two Israelis have been killed and one other wounded in a knife attack by a Palestinian man in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, Israeli police say.

Witnesses said the stabbings happened at the entrance to a shop in the south of the city that serves as a synagogue, while a prayer service took place.

The assailant was held by passers-by until police arrived.

A wave of violence over the past two months has claimed the lives of 14 Israelis and dozens of Palestinians.

Many of the Palestinian fatalities were attackers in near-daily stabbings of Israelis, shot by their victims or security forces. Others have been killed in clashes with troops in the occupied West Bank or in cross-border violence in Gaza.

Search for accomplices

Thursday's attack took place in a busy commercial building on Ben Tzvi road.

Witness Shimon Vaknin told the Jerusalem Post newspaper that the afternoon prayer service had just begun at the shop when a man covered in blood fell on a number of worshippers.

Image copyrightIsraeli Prime Minister's Office

Image captionSecurity officials said the attacker was a 36-year-old man from the village of Dura in the West Bank

The other worshippers then pushed the attacker outside the shop and barricaded the door shut, he said.

One of the victims, a man in his 20s, was declared dead at the scene by the Magen David Adom ambulance service. The second was rushed to Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

The assailant, who security officials said was a 36-year-old man from the West Bank village of Dura West Bank, was reportedly lightly wounded and is in custody.

Police said they believed he had acted alone, but were nevertheless searching for possible accomplices.

The militant Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas posted a Tweet praising "the heroic attack in Tel Aviv", adding: "We ask the fighters to keep doing so."

It is the first attack by a Palestinian on Israelis since Friday, when a rabbi and his son were shot dead south of the West Bank city of Hebron, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

The last attack in central Israel, it reports, was two-and-a-half weeks ago, when four people were stabbed and wounded in Rishon Lezion and Netanya.

The surge in violence began in September when tensions at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem revered by Jews and Muslims boiled over, amid rumours that Israel planned to relax long-standing rules to strengthen Jewish rights at the complex. Israel has repeatedly denied such claims.