OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: New violence rocked Israel and the occupied West Bank Wednesday, with three stabbings and a Palestinian shot dead by police, as premier Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israelis to be on maximum alert against “terrorism.”

In the West Bank, meanwhile, men thought to be undercover Israeli police opened fire on a group of Palestinian stone-throwers they had infiltrated, wounding three of them.

The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said 288 Palestinians were hurt in the clashes, including 10 by live fire.

Israeli and Palestinian officials reportedly met for security talks in the West Bank Tuesday evening, and there were calls Wednesday from the European Union for calm and a return to political dialogue.

In the meantime, Netanyahu had a stark message for his citizens.

“Israeli civilians are at the forefront of a war against terrorism and must also be on maximum alert,” he said Wednesday after visiting a Jerusalem police headquarters.

“The goal of terrorism is to spread fear, and the way to defeat it is to maintain composure and resilience on both a national and personal level,” his office quoted him as saying.

Netanyahu, who postponed a visit to Germany to tackle violence that has raged for three weeks, added: “We have known worse times, and we will overcome this new wave of terror by maintaining our determination, responsibility and unity.”

President Reuven Rivlin warned that Israel and the Palestinians were “sitting on a volcano.”

Both sides were the targets of violence, amid fears of a new Palestinian intifada, despite efforts to calm tensions.

In central Israel’s Kiryat Gat, police shot dead a Palestinian man after he allegedly wounded a soldier with a knife and took his weapon, authorities said.

In Jerusalem’s Old City, not far from the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, police said an 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed a 35-year-old Jewish man in the back and lightly wounded him.

The man, who was armed, managed to draw his gun, shooting and seriously wounding his attacker, police said.

Israel lifted age restrictions from Wednesday on Muslims praying at the compound in an apparent bid to ease tensions. The compound has been the focal point of violence for the past three weeks.

In other incidents, four masked men who had been among Palestinians throwing stones in the West Bank suddenly turned on them, drew pistols and began firing at them.

One of three shot was seriously wounded in the back of the head.

Palestinians regularly accuse Israel of placing Arabic-speaking infiltrators among demonstrators.

Jewish settlers shot and seriously wounded an 18-year-old Palestinian near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the Red Crescent and witnesses said. And a Jewish man was attacked with a knife outside a shopping center in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, police said, adding that the attacker had been overpowered.

The White House expressed deep concern Wednesday about the escalating violence urged Israelis and Palestinians to restore calm after a spate of attacks.

Tuesday night’s talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials followed a call for restraint from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who had declared in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly last week that he was no longer bound by accords with Israel.

The spike in violence has brought international calls for calm, with concerns the unrest could escalate into a new intifada like those of 1987-93 and the early 2000s.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel to fully investigate deadly clashes in Jerusalem and the West Bank.He said a “prompt and transparent” probe into the army’s killing in Bethlehem of 13-year-old Abdel-Rahman Abdullah during unrest Monday would determine “whether the use of force had been proportional.”

In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said it was vital for Netanyahu and Abbas to “show leadership to promote calm, encourage restraint and avoid actions which further fuel tensions.”

“The way to tackle the violence and unrest is for both sides to move quickly to restart a credible political process ... Ultimately, a negotiated two-state solution is the only way to bring the lasting peace and security that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve,” Mogherini added.