At least two Israelis – a young woman and an IDF soldier – were killed and two others injured in separate terror attacks on Monday, refocusing attention on recent calls for violence that have come from the top echelons of Palestinian leadership, up to and including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The killings are the latest in a series of attacks against Israelis – there have been several “hit-and-run” incidents, one of which killed an infant, as well as an October attack in which an Israeli man was shot point-blank in the chest – that come amid a wave of incitement by leading Palestinian officials, who in recent weeks have praised Palestinian terrorists who have carried out attacks and encouraged violence against Jews and Israelis.

In one of the Monday attacks, Maher Hamdi al-Hashalmoun, who was affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and had been jailed in the early 2000’s for a petrol bomb attack, reportedly drove his car into a concrete barrier and used a knife to attack a group of people at a busy intersection in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, killing Dalia Lemkus. The Tel Aviv incident, in which 20-year-old Almog Shiloni fatally stabbed at a train station in the city hours earlier, was praised by Qatar-based Hamas spokesman Husam Badran, who lauded the attack as “part of a welcome plan” reflective of the Palestinian “determination.”

Strategic Affairs Ministry Director-General Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser this weekend assailed Abbas for praising Palestinian attackers, and Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs on Sunday blasted Palestinian leaders for inciting violence, pointing to an interview with Hamas leader Fathi Hamad in which Hamad encouraged attacks on Israelis, reportedly saying “Even he who owns nothing but his faith has a kitchen in his house in which he has a knife… He must grab his knife and confront the Zionist enemy.”

[Photo: palwatch / YouTube ]