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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - An attack on a bus in Tel Aviv has left 13 people injured with stab wounds, Israeli police have said.

The assailant, who tried to escape the scene on Wednesday, was shot by police and lightly wounded in the leg before being apprehended, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

She said the attacker was "a member of a minority," using the usual police term for a Palestinian.

Israeli authorities said the man was a 23-year-old from Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, and had entered Israel without a work visa.

The attack occurred during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, after the assailant boarded the bus on Begin Road, a major thoroughfare in Tel Aviv.

He stabbed the bus driver before moving through the bus and stabbing other passengers.

Four of the injured had moderate to serious injuries, according to police.

String of attacks

Reporting from Jerusalem, Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh said: "There have been many of these attacks in recent months, but this one is significant because such an attack hasn't occurred in Tel Aviv since an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death in November."

Tension between Israelis and Palestinians have been on the rise since the war in Gaza ended in August, 2014, with more than 2,200 Palestinians killed, mostly civilians, and more than 70 Israelis killed, nearly all of them soldiers.

An attack on a Jerusalem synagogue by two Palestinian men in November killed five Israelis and wounded eight others, before the perpetrators of the attack were shot dead by Israeli forces. Some Palestinian officials said the attack was "a natural reaction to Israel's practices" against Palestinians, while President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killings.

Palestinians also spent several weeks protesting in Jerusalem and parts of the occupied West Bank against what they say are repeated attempts by right-wing Jews to extend their influence at the Muslim-run Haram al-Sharif, which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque. The compound is also considered by Jews to be a holy site.

On Monday, thousands of Palestinians living inside Israel participated in the funeral procession of a Palestinian man with Israeli citizenship who died during a confrontation with Israeli police on Sunday night. Local councils and grassroots committees have also called for nationwide general strikes.

Palestinian residents of the West Bank have also faced an escalation in attacks by Israeli settlers, including firebombings of local houses.

*Agencies