Netanyahu accuses Arabs of incitement in wave of stabbings

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians carried out three stabbings today in Jerusalem, leaving a teenage Israeli boy in critical condition, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily accused the country's Arab leaders of helping incite weeks of violence. Two of the attackers, both teenage boys, were killed.

In a fiery speech at parliament, Netanyahu accused Arab parties of "undermining" the country. He called on Israel's Arab citizens to "kick out the extremists among you."

Netanyahu spoke on another bloody day, the latest in a monthlong wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

In a new setback for efforts to restore calm, the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia __ postponed a trip to the region. Edgar Vasquez, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Near East Affairs, said it was at the request of the Israeli government due to the circumstances.

Israeli police reported three separate stabbings across the city, including an assault by two attackers in the east Jerusalem area of Pisgat Zeev. Police said the pair seriously wounded a 20-year-old man before attacking a teenage boy on a bicycle.

The boy was critically wounded before police shot and killed one of the attackers, while the second was run over by a car. Abdel Nasser Manasra, a relative of Ahmed, 13, and Hassan, 15, said both were cousins. He did not know which had been killed.