Palestinian gunman kills soldier, injures 10

A Palestinian attacker armed with a gun and a knife opened fire in a southern Israel bus station on Sunday, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding 10 people in one of the boldest attacks in a monthlong wave of violence, authorities said.

The violence came as Israel further tightened security around the country, highlighted by the con struction of a barrier separating Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

In a bid to halt the fighting, Secretary of State John Kerry said he would meet the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the coming days.

Israel has deployed thousands of police, backed up by troops, to maintain order following a spate of attacks, mostly stabbings, by Palestinian assailants — but have so far failed to stop the violence.

In Sunday’s attack, police said the assailant entered the central bus station in Beersheba and began shooting and stabbing people. They said an Israeli soldier was killed, five police were lightly wounded and five civilians were wounded to varying degrees.

Yoram Halevy, a police commander in southern Israel, told reporters that in addition to the knife and gun he entered with, the attacker also snatched a weapon from the soldier he killed.

The attacker, whose identity was not immediately known, was shot and killed.