Benjamin Netanyahu cancels German visit as violence spreads across Israel

Jerusalem:  Israel's prime minister cancelled a visit to Germany on Wednesday after a spate of attacks that included the stabbing of an Israeli soldier by a suspected Palestinian militant who police said was then shot dead by special forces.

A steady rise in street violence, which Israeli and Palestinian leaders have sought to calm, has been fuelled by confrontations around Jerusalem's al Aqsa mosque complex, Islam's third holiest shrine which Jews also revere as the vestige of their two ancient temples.

In the third knife attack in Jerusalem in less than a week, a young Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli on Wednesday near that contested site and was then shot by the injured man.

On a day of multiple attacks, the bloodshed also spread to other parts of Israel.

The stabbing of the soldier by the presumed militant took place in the southern town of Kiryat Gat, and in the central city of Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv, a Palestinian stabbed and lightly wounded an Israeli man outside a busy shopping centre, police said.

Four Israelis have been killed in stabbings in Jerusalem and a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank since Thursday, and two Palestinians have been shot dead and scores injured in clashes with security services, triggering fears of an escalation.

With those concerns still acute after Wednesday's incidents, Netanyahu cancelled a trip to Germany, Israel's most important European ally, scheduled for Thursday.

Israel Radio reported that in a bid to ease tensions, a few days ago, Netanyahu instructed his ministers and governing lawmakers to temporarily refrain from visiting the volatile mosque compound, which Jews refer to as Temple Mount.

Palestinians fear increasing visits by Jewish groups to al-Aqsa are eroding longtime Muslim religious control there. Netanyahu has stated that he is committed to keeping the "status quo" at Temple Mount.

A small group of ultranationalist lawmakers and at least one minister have visited the plaza around al-Aqsa in recent months, heightening tensions there.

Both Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas - though at diplomatic loggerheads over peace talks that stalled in April 2014 - have sought to avert an escalation, and Netanyahu on Wednesday praised Israelis' resolve.

"The object of terror is to instil fear and the main way to defeat terror is to display calm and resolve... we have known worse periods than this and we will overcome this," he said.

Striking a similar tone, the Fatah Central Committee, the highest decision making body of the movement led by Abbas, praised Palestinians who participate in rallies "to defend the holy Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem."