1 tourist killed, 5 wounded in Tel Aviv attack following airstrikes, West Bank violence

An Italian tourist was killed and five people were wounded in a car ramming in Tel Aviv on Friday that came hours after two Israeli sisters were killed in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank.

The attacks, after a night of cross-border strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, added to an atmosphere of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions following Israeli police raids in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque earlier this week.

The tensions threatened to spiral into a wider conflict overnight as Israel responded to a barrage of rockets by hitting targets linked to the Islamist militant group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon, but the fighting entered a lull on Friday.

However, the two attacks underlined how volatile the situation remains after successive nights of trouble that have drawn worldwide alarm and calls for calm.

Driver in car attack killed by police

In the latest attack, a car plowed into a group on a street near a popular bike and walking path on a Tel Aviv promenade. The driver was shot dead by a nearby police officer when he tried to pull a gun, police said.

An Israeli security source identified the assailant as an Arab citizen of Israel from the town of Kafr Qassem.

Reuters video from shortly after the incident showed a white car upside down on the grass of a park. Police cordoned off the area that was brimming with emergency responders.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said the victims were all foreign tourists and Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed that an Italian had been killed and other Italians may have been among the wounded.

"Our enemies are putting us to the test again,"Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu said following a visit to the site of the attack with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

As soldiers hunted for the gunman, Netanyahu ordered border police reserves and additional military forces to be mobilized to confront the wave of attacks.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Friday that the U.S. "strongly condemns today's terrorist attacks."

"The three horrific attacks today, in which three were killed and at least eight others wounded, affected citizens of Israel, Italyand the United Kingdom. The targeting of innocent civilians of any nationality is unconscionable," the spokesperson said.

Ongoing tensions over religious sites

No claim of responsibility was made for either of Friday's attacks, but Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the blockaded Gaza Strip, praised them and linked them to the tensions around Al-Aqsa mosque.

Friday prayers passed without major incident and apart from some stone-throwing, police said the situation had been quiet.

WATCH | Calls for peace after clashes:

Calls for peace after clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque

1 year ago

Duration 2:27

Israeli raids on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem sparked renewed clashes and calls for peace as Passover and Ramadan coincide. [Note: A previous description inaccurately described the al-Aqsua mosque. The mosque is one of the holiest sites in Islam. It sits on the Temple Mount, one of the holiest sites in Judaism.]

However, twice this week Israeli police have raided the mosque, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers have been praying during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, to dislodge groups they said had barricaded themselves with the aim of causing trouble.

Footage of officers beating worshippers who confronted them aroused concern, even among Israel's allies, and prompted condemnation across the Arab world.

The site in Jerusalem's Old City, holy to both Muslims and Jews, who know it as Temple Mount, has been a longstanding flashpoint, notably over the issue of Jewish visitors defying a ban on non-Muslim prayer in the mosque compound.

Even before the flare-up of the past few days, the West Bank has seen a surge of confrontations in the past several months, with frequent military raids and escalating settler violence amid a spate of attacks by Palestinians.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 18 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in attacks in Israel, around Jerusalem and in the West Bank. In the same period, Israeli forces have killed more than 80 Palestinians, most of them fighters in militant groups but some of them civilians.

Airstrikes in Lebanon, Gaza

The attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bankcame against the backdrop of heightened tensions after Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian militant targets in both Lebanon and Gaza.

Israeli jets hit sites in Lebanon and Gaza earlieron Friday, in retaliation for rocket attacks that Israel blamed onHamas, as tensions following police raids on the Al-AqsaMosque in Jerusalem this week threatened to spiral out of control.

Ground-shaking blasts rocked different areas of Gaza. Israel said its jets hit targets including tunnels and weapons manufacturing sites of Hamas, which controls the blockaded southern coastal strip.

As daybreak neared, the military said it had also struck Hamas targets in southern Lebanon, where residents around the area of the Rashidiyeh refugee camp reported three loud blasts.

Two Lebanese security sources said the strike hit a small structure on farmland near the area from which the rockets had been launched earlier. The strike appeared to have left a large crater in farmland in the south, according to Reuters witnesses.

A member of Lebanon's Civil Defence at the scene on Friday morning said there were no casualties.

Rocket attacks

The Israeli airstrikes came in response to rocket attacks from Lebanon towardnorthern Israeli areas, which Israeli officials blamed on Hamas.

The military said 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon, 25 of which were intercepted by air defence systems. It was the biggest such attack since 2006, when Israel fought a war with the heavily armed Hezbollah movement.

The airstrikes came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with his security cabinet to discuss the rocket fire. He vowed an "aggressive response."

"We will strike our enemies and they will pay a price for every act of aggression," he said, noting that Israelis remain united in the face of external threats despite their political differences.

Fears of wider conflict

The unusually large salvo of rockets raised fears of a wider conflagration;Hezbollahholds sway over much of southern Lebanon.

In a briefing with reporters, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesperson, said the army drew a clear connection between the Lebanese rocket fire and the recent unrest in Jerusalem.

"It's a Palestinian-oriented event," he said, adding that either the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant groups, which are based in Gaza but also operate in Lebanon, could be involved.

But he said the army believed that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government were aware of what happened and also held responsibility. He declined to say how Israel might respond, saying there were "all sorts of scenarios."

No faction in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the salvo of rockets.

A Lebanese security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the country's security forces believed the rockets were launched by a Lebanon-based Palestinian militant group, not by Hezbollah militants. The official said there were no casualties on the Lebanese side.

A spokesperson for Hezbollah did not respond to a request for comment. Both Israel and Hezbollah have avoided an all-out conflict since a 34-day war in 2006 ended with a draw.

Tensions have simmered along the Lebanese border as Israel appears to have ratcheted up its shadow war against Iranian-linked targets in Syria, another close ally of Iran, Israel's archenemy in the region.

Suspected Israeli airstrikes in Syria in recent weeks have killed two Iranian military advisers and temporarily put the country's two largest airports out of service. Hecht said Thursday's rocket fire was not believed to be connected to events in Syria.