Prime Minister Naftali Bennett promised the Israeli population that the days would be difficult.

"We are currently dealing with a new wave of terrorism," he said in a recorded speech released on Wednesday night.

The perpetrators are "ready to die - so that we will not live in peace".

Shortly before, there had been the third terrorist attack in Israel in just over a week - and the deadliest.

An armed Palestinian killed five people on Tuesday evening in Bnei Brak, a Tel Aviv suburb, before being shot dead by police officers himself.

Christian Meier

Political correspondent for the Middle East and Northeast Africa.

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According to police, there were two crime scenes.

The first was a residential area, three people were killed there.

Video footage showed the perpetrator aiming an assault rifle at passers-by on the street and shooting dead a motorist.

He then ran to the second crime scene, where he shot another person.

There he was finally killed by two police officers from the motorcycle squadron.

One of the police officers was seriously injured in the firefight and later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

The police officer killed, Amir Khoury, was a 32-year-old Palestinian Israeli from northern Israel.

The other victims were two residents of Bnei Brak, 36-year-old Yaakov Shalom and 29-year-old Avishai Yhezkel, and two workers from Ukraine;

their first names were given in the Israeli press as Alexander and Dmitry.

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For months there have been warnings of another bloody Ramadan in Israel after major unrest and a gun battle between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip last May.

Now, with just a few days to go before the start of the Islamic month of fasting, it looks like the predictions may be coming true.

Eleven people were killed by attackers in three attacks within Israel within eight days.

On Tuesday last week, an attacker killed four people in the town of Beersheba in the Negev desert;

and on Sunday evening two police officers were killed by two attackers in the central Israeli city of Hadera.

These first two acts were committed by Palestinian citizens of Israel;

on both occasions the terrorist organization "Islamic State" claimed responsibility for the crime.

In contrast, the Bnei Brak assassin came from the West Bank: According to police, it was 26-year-old Diaa Hamarsheh from the village of Ya'bad near Jenin.

He apparently knew Bnei Brak because he worked there.

Many Palestinians work in Israel without a permit.

According to initial findings, Hamarsheh illegally crossed the border between the Palestinian West Bank and Israel.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing the secret service and the police, he probably only got hold of the murder weapon on Israeli territory, which raises the question of accomplices.

Another Palestinian, like Hamarsheh, who was in Israel without a permit, was arrested near the scene.

On Wednesday morning, security forces searched the home of Hamarsheh's family and arrested his brother.

There were clashes between local residents and Israeli security forces.

Inspired by the attacks of the past few days?

In 2013, Hamarsheh served a prison sentence in Israel for security crimes.

So far, the authorities apparently assume that he was inspired by the attacks of the past few days.

The possibility of such copycat acts is likely to be the greatest danger in the coming days.

Police chief Kobi Shabtai declared the highest state of alert, and the army announced that additional units would be relocated to the West Bank.

Bennett summoned the Security Cabinet for the afternoon.

The prime minister said security forces would fight terrorism "with tenacity, diligence and an iron fist."

The level of concern about a new escalation of violence is shown by the fact that not only Israeli politicians - including Palestinians - condemned the act and called on the population to unite, but also that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an official statement murder of Israeli civilians.

After the deeds in Beersheba and Hadera, Abbas remained silent.

According to Israeli media reports, Israel's Defense Minister Benny Gantz had previously put pressure on the Palestinian President.

The army had planned to ease movement restrictions for Palestinians, for example to get to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, during Ramadan.

In contrast to Abbas' conviction, there were apparently scenes of joy over the attack in the assassin's home town and in other Palestinian towns.

Meanwhile, anti-Arab slogans were shouted in Bnei Brak on Tuesday night, and local residents and several right-wing politicians harassed Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, who had come to the scene.