United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged Israelis and Palestinians to do everything they can to reduce the simmering hostilities and continue, through dialogue, on the path to peace.

Ban’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said the Secretary-General expresses his deep concern about the upsurge in violence and killings over the past few days in Israel and Judea and Samaria.

“Violence only deepens distrust, while making more distant the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” Ban said.

Dujarric noted that the Secretary-General called “on all sides to do everything they possibly can to avoid further exacerbating an already tense environment” and added that Ban’s thoughts were with the families of the victims.

Ban’s comments come amid continuing tensions as Arabs riot and carry out terrorist attacks, in what has come to be known as the “silent intifada”.

Two terrorist attacks in Alon Shvut and Tel Aviv took place on Monday, in which two Jews were murdered.

On Tuesday, large IDF and police forces fanned out in Israel’s large cities to head off “a very large terror attack” that Hamas is believed to be planning against Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), meanwhile, is continuing its incitement against Israel.

While PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s political advisor Nimer Hammad denounced recent violence in a statement on official PA TV, another Abbas advisor, Sultan Abu Al-Einein, encouraged more violence by praising the terrorist murderers who carried out the recent attacks.