Israel PM: Violence likely to go on in coming days

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he was expecting "an increase in violence in the coming days", as the country was gripped with civil unrest involving violent Jewish and Arab mobs.

Violence between Hamas and Israel continued on Thursday with rockets sent deep into Israel and the Israeli army pounding Gaza with more airstrikes.

While some rocket attacks have reached the Tel Aviv area, Arab and Jewish mobs have rampaged through the streets, savagely beating people and torching cars.

"I cannot tell you that we are not facing escalation," said Netanyahu in the central city of Lod, the epicentre of the troubles, despite a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew.

"In order to suppress a riot, we need to use force, a lot of force, we will use it," he added.

Ugly confrontations erupted late on Wednesday.

Jewish and Arab mobs battled in Lod while in nearby Bat Yam, Jewish nationalists dragged an Arab motorist from his car and beat him until he was motionless.

Israeli police said two people were shot and wounded in Lod and an Israeli Jew was stabbed.

An Arab citizen was stabbed and seriously wounded in Jerusalem’s central Mahane Yehuda market.

In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it intervened in a Palestinian shooting attack that wounded two people.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the suspected gunman was killed.

The current eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed Israeli police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police.

A focal point of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police was Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound that is revered by Jews and Muslims. Israel regards Jerusalem in its entirety as its capital, while the Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.

Image: AP