Palestinian stabs 4 in Tel Aviv, Israeli police say

Israeli police officers stand guard at the scene of a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv, Israel. Sunday, April 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

JERUSALEM – A Palestinian stabbed and lightly wounded four people in Tel Aviv before being arrested Sunday, the latest violence in a wave of attacks by Palestinians in the last year and a half, Israeli police said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld called the violence a "terror attack" and said the 18-year-old suspect was being questioned by police.

The attack took place on a street near the city's popular beachfront.

Since September 2015, Palestinians have killed 42 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in a wave of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks.

In that same period of time, Israeli forces killed at least 244 Palestinians, most of them identified as attackers by Israeli authorities. The rest died in clashes with Israeli troops.

Israel says the violence is fueled by a Palestinian campaign of incitement compounded on social media sites that glorify such attacks. Palestinians say it stems from anger over decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state.