World Bulletin / News Desk

A Palestinian killed after he overturned a bus with a construction vehicle on Monday and a gunman wounded a soldier in attacks in Jerusalem that appeared to be a backlash against Israel's Gaza war.

"The truck came out of a construction side and hit a civilian walking on the road and an Israeli bus," Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfelt told Anadolu Agency.

He said one person sustained severe injuries while four others were lightly wounded in the attack.

"Nearby police saw that it was a clear terrorist attack and shot the suspected driver dead," Rosenfelt added.

Israeli authorities are still trying to identify the driver.

The attack took place in Geule, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood at the edge of West Jerusalem.

Scores of local Jews gathered around, shouting against the driver and applauding police officers who were heavily deployed.

Several hours later, a gunmen fired at a soldier, wounding him in the stomach, a few minutes' walk away. Police said the assailant then jumped on a waiting motorcycle and sped away.

"We very much suspect that this was a terrorist attack," said Yossi Parienti, Jerusalem district police chief, told Channel Two television.

A high alert was also called in Israel's commercial hub, Tel Aviv. Police set up road blocks in the city, causing widespread congestion, although they were later removed.

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops have been increasing in East Jerusalem since July 7, when Israel began pounding the blockaded Gaza Strip – home to 1.8 million people.

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said the nearly four-week-old Gaza war had also raised fears of attacks in Israeli cities.

"From the moment fighting started in the south, we realised such an incident of a lone attacker can happen and such tractor attacks are familiar in Jerusalem," Aharonovitch said on Channel 2 television.

"(The driver's) whole family is being interrogated. We want to know who sent him, if he was acting alone, whether he belonged to a network - all those things are being checked," he said.

At least 1824 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and 9450 wounded in unrelenting Israeli attacks since then.

The Israeli army on Sunday confirmed that 64 troops had been killed and 400 others injured in the ongoing Gaza military operation.

Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rockets at Israeli cities, killing three civilians.

The offensive – codenamed "Operation Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populate Gaza Strip within the last six years.