UN warns of Israel-Palestinian 'catastrophe' as attacks persist

The United Nations warned Wednesday that a deadly surge in violence between Israelis and Palestinians was headed toward "catastrophe" as new knife attacks took place in the volatile West Bank.

 An Israeli woman was stabbed and moderately wounded in one such attack, while a Palestinian allegedly tried to stab an Israeli soldier and was shot dead in another, the police and army said.

 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the latest flare-up in violence in the six-decade-old conflict was "dangerous in the extreme".

 "The violence between Palestinians and the Israelis will draw us ever closer to a catastrophe if not stopped immediately," he said during a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

 World leaders desperately want to revive moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that last collapsed in April 2014, to avoid a deeper slide into violence that many fear could lead to a third Palestinian intifada.

 But Abbas said Wednesday that "it is no longer useful to waste time in negotiations" and warned that a continuation of the current violence could "kill the last shred of hope for the two-state-solution-based peace."

 He called on the United Nations "to set up a special regime for international protection for the Palestinian people."