U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that “Israel has every right in the world to defend itself and it has an obligation to defend itself,” while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Thank you. Mr. Prime Minister, Bibi, thank you for welcoming me here. And for me, I am pleased to be back in Jerusalem, pleased to be back in Israel, though I come at a time that, as the prime minister has just said, is very troubling. Clearly, no people anywhere should live with daily violence, with attacks in the streets, with knives or scissors or cars.

And it is very clear to us that the terrorism – these acts of terrorism which have been taking place – have deserved the condemnation that they are receiving. And today, I expressed my complete condemnation for any act of terror that takes innocent lives and disrupts the day-to-day life of a nation. Israel has every right in the world to defend itself and it has an obligation to defend itself, and it will and it is.

Our thoughts and prayers are with innocent people who have been hurt in this process. I know that yesterday, a soldier was killed in the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family, and those who were wounded, their families. Regrettably, several Americans have also been killed in the course of these past weeks. And just yesterday, I talked to the family of Ezra Schwartz from Massachusetts, a young man who came here out of high school ready to go to college, excited about his future. And yesterday, his family was sitting at Shiva and I talked to them and heard their feelings, the feelings of any parent who lost their child.

Netanyahu also told Kerry that he was willing to “improve the security and economic situation for Palestinians in the West Bank” only when the wave of terrorist attacks stopped, The Times of Israel reported.

Netanyahu told Kerry that the core problem driving the terror attacks is “religious incitement” by the Palestinian Authority spread via social media, especially surrounding the Temple Mount, according to the official. “The PA participates in the incitement,” Netanyahu is said to have told Kerry.

Later, while meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Kerry said that there is no excuse for terror and reiterated his support for Israel’s right to defend itself.

This is a difficult time. We all know that. When citizens can be murdered like Ezra Schwartz, my citizen of Massachusetts, driving in a car on a mission to learn and to share, and when other citizens can be gunned down, and a soldier yesterday, in a marketplace in Jerusalem, this is a challenge to all civilized people. And we all have a responsibility to condemn that violence, to make it clear that no frustration, no politics, no ideology, no emotion justifies taking innocent lives.

So I am pleased to stand here with you, as I stood earlier with the prime minister, to express our outrage at this kind of violence, to condemn this violence, and to make it clear that Israel not only has a right to defend itself; it has an obligation to do so. And the United States will continue to stand with Israel in support of your desire to live in peace and stability without that violence.

Kerry’s meeting with the Israeli leaders comes just a day after Netanyahu introduced new security measures in response to the recent surge in terrorist attacks. These include greater scrutiny of Palestinian cars on roads also used by Israelis, and the revocation of work permits given to relatives of terrorists, The Washington Post reported.

Netanyahu announced the measures during a visit with his top military generals and security advisers to a busy West Bank intersection where a Palestinian man fatally stabbed an Israeli woman on Sunday afternoon.

Hadar Buchris, the victim of Sunday’s attack, was buried in a Jerusalem cemetery on Monday. About the same time, an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant at a busy gas station on one of the main thoroughfares leading from the center of the country to Jerusalem. The road, which runs through parts of the West Bank and bypasses several Palestinian villages, has been the scene of violent incidents in the past.

Earlier in the day, two Palestinian girls, ages 14 and 16, stabbed an elderly man with a pair of scissors on a street in central Jerusalem. The man, who was later identified as Palestinian, was slightly wounded. A security guard shot the girls, killing one and critically wounding the other.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service reported that 21 people have been killed and 189 wounded in over 90 terror attacks since the beginning of October.

Various experts have linked the violence to ongoing incitement spread by Palestinian officials and social media. Ahead of the Jewish holidays, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Palestinians to protect holy sites in Jerusalem from the “filthy feet” of Jews, and blessed “every drop of blood” spilled for the city. On online networks, hashtags such as “Poison the Knife before You Stab” and “Slaughtering the Jews,” as well as violent cartoons and how-to guides encouraging more terror attacks, have become popular.

[Photo: Matty Stern / US Embassy Tel Aviv ]