One person was killed and at least 13 people were wounded in a terror attack near East Jerusalem on Wednesday after a commercial vehicle drove into a crowd of people on Shimon Hatzadik Street, near the entrance to the capital.
Two of the casualties are reported to be in critical condition and one in serious condition.
One of the wounded is a Border Police officer, according to the Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovich.
The name of the driver, according to the Islamic Jihad website, was Ibrahim al-Akari, from Shuafat, in East Jerusalem. He is reported to be the brother of one of the Palestinians released in the Shalit deal and deported abroad.
According to rescue unit head Eli Bir, who was one of the first on the scene, the vehicle hit several pedestrians on Highway 1, at a bus stop on the corner of Shimon Hatzadik Street, then continued on to the next junction, at Moshe Zaks Street, where it ploughed into more pedestrians.
The driver then exited the vehicle and began attacking people with a metal rod, before being shot and killed by police.
The trauma ward at Hadassah Hospital Ein Karem received one casualty in critical condition who later died and three patients in serious condition who are now being assessed.
Another four casualties were taken to Shaarei Zedek Hospital. Two are in critical condition and on life support.
Hamas praised the attack and called for more violence.
"We praise this heroic operation," said Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum. "We call for more such ... operations."
Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri on Wednesday praised the terrorist who carried out the attack in Jerusalem, saying that that it was an act of revenge “for al-Aqsa and for the blood of those who guard Al-Aqsa.”
Russia has moved troops closer to the border with Ukraine and continues to support rebels in the country's east, NATO's chief said on Tuesday, after an election held by the pro-Russian separatists and condemned by Kiev and Western leaders.
Ukraine's president said Sunday's vote flouted terms of a plan to end a war that has killed more than 4000 people, and that newly formed army units would be sent to defend a string of eastern cities against a possible new rebel offensive.
"Recently we are seeing Russian troops moving closer to the border with Ukraine," Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of NATO, told a news conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
"Russia continues to support separatists by training them, by providing equipment and support them by also having Russian special forces inside eastern parts of Ukraine."
Russia has denied military involvement in eastern Ukraine despite what Western officials have cited as overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
"We call on Russia to make genuine efforts towards a peaceful solution," Mr Stoltenberg said, "and to use all their influence on the separatists to make them respect the Minsk agreements and to respect the ceasefire which is a precondition for a political solution to the difficult situation in Ukraine."
Mr Stoltenberg said Russia was also trying to show strength by increasing military flights close to NATO airspace in Europe.
The pro-Russian separatists staged swearing-in ceremonies for their leaders in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.
Moscow says the election of Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky as leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics", which jointly call themselves "New Russia", means that Kiev should now negotiate with them directly.
Kiev has rejected this, describing the rebels as Russian-backed "terrorists" or "bandits", with no legitimacy.
While the peace plan has not been entirely effective, with continued reports of fighting near Donetsk and other cities in the east, the Ukrainian president has thus far rejected a new military campaign.
But on Tuesday, Poroshenko requested the military deploy more troops to the eastern towns of Mariupol and Kharkiv, in a bid to stave off attacks.
"Several new units have been formed that will enable us to repel possible attacks [in those areas] and [in] areas north of Luhansk and the Dnipropetrovsk region," he said, according to a statement on the president's website.
Coinciding with the high-level meeting in Kyiv, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels that military alliance had evidence of heightened Russian military activity close to Ukraine.
"We see Russian troops moving closer to the border with Ukraine," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
Meanwhile, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, the winners in Sunday's elections, weresworn in as the respective presidents of Donetsk and Luhansk on Tuesday.
Their insistence on moving forward with exerting their authority over the region prompted concern from the EU's new foreign affairs minister.
It would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible," to move toward peace if the current accord were to collapse, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told the UK's Guardian newspaper.
Later in the day, she told reporters in Brussels that the separatist elections threatened to close "the window of opportunity" for all sides to maintain dialogue, instead of reverting back to an armed conflict.
The US and UN have also rebuked leaders in eastern Ukraine in recent days, a criticism which also points to Moscow's influence over the region. While Russia has not formally endorsed the outcome of Sunday's polls, it supported the legitimacy of the elections.
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