Wave of violence is mainly religious based - Yair Lapid

The latest round of violence in the Middle East is more a religious than national conflict, the leader of Israel's Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid has said.

He told HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur: "These are Islamic assassins who want to kill Jews because they are Jews."

The violence was being driven by radicalisation through social networks, and imams preaching in mosques, he said.

There has been a series of stabbings of Israelis and some shootings - several of them fatal - by Palestinians since early October, and one apparent revenge stabbing by an Israeli.

Israel has tightened security and its security forces have clashed with rioting Palestinians, leading to deaths on the Palestinian side.

Violence between Israeli and Palestinians has been escalating since clashes erupted in mid-September at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem.

Watch the full interview on Wednesday 21 October 2015 and Thursday 22 October 2015 on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel.