Further fatal Israel clashes

A Palestinian man was killed following clashes with Israeli soldiers Tuesday in the West Bank near the city of Hebron. According to Israel's military, the violence erupted as soldiers were trying to disperse a crowd of about 150 Palestinians who were throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails on the main road outside the city.

The shooting is the latest in a string of recent violent incidents in Israel and the West Bank, which followed a dispute over access to a Jerusalem holy site, continued building by Israel of Jewish settlements in occupied areas and the 50-day war in the Gaza Strip over summer which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and 70 Israelis.

It also comes as Palestinians commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of leader Yasser Arafat, who died on November 11, 2004 in unclear circumstances at a hospital near Paris.

Heightened security following stabbings

Israeli authorities on Tuesday announced they would tighten security measures in major cities and in the West Bank following the violence, which included two fatal stabbings of Israelis by Palestinians on Monday.

A 20-year-old Israeli soldier died of his wounds from a knife attack near a Tel Aviv rail station. The alleged assailant, from the West Bank city of Nablus, fled but was later arrested. A few hours later, a 25-year-old woman was killed when a lone Palestinian attacked three Israelis near a settlement in the West Bank. Two people were injured, while the alleged assailant was shot and wounded by a security guard.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said several police units had been deployed in public places in cities including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Another police official, Luba Samri, told the AFP news agency the police had been placed on an advanced state of alert.

"Thousands of police officers, volunteers and reinforcements have been deployed across the country to ensure the safety of the public," she said.

Israel's military said it had sent reinforcements to the West Bank.

EU foreign policy chief weighs in

Also on Tuesday, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, voiced her sadness and worry about the escalation in violence and urged progress towards a peace plan.

"We need a Palestinian state living in peace and security next to the Israeli state," Mogherini told reporters in Berlin, flanked by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, adding that the recent violence had "demonstrated very clearly that if we do not offer political perspective both to the Israelis to live in security and to the Palestinians to have a state, their own state, violence will come back."

se/nm (AP, AFP, dpa)