Malta condemns deadly attacks in Israel, West Bank

The government has condemned the latest series of attacks in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank, calling on Israel and Palestine to put aside their difference and return to the negotiating table.

“Malta condemns in the strongest possible terms this senseless violence and is concerned as the escalation which is becoming alarmingly characteristic of the region,” foreign affairs minister George Vella said in a statement. “This upsurge in the tensions should be a clear call to both sides to put aside their differences and return to the negotiating table. Only the resumption of a political process will restore peace and provide a solution to the Middle East question.”

Five people were killed in two separate attacks in Israel and the West Bank on Thursday. In the first attack, a Palestinian man stabbed two Israelis to death at the entrance of a shop that serves as a synagogue in the city of Tel Aviv. Later on, a third Israeli, a Jewish American and a Palestinian were killed in an attack near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

The attacks are the latest in a surge of violence that began in September when tensions flared at a holy site in Jerusalem revered by Jews and Muslims alike, amid rumours that Israel planned to relax long-standing rules to strengthen Jewish rights at the complex.

Since then, 15 Israelis and dozens of Palestinians have been killed.