Five Israelis were wounded in a stabbing attack on Tuesday in Tel Aviv while the attacker was killed, Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom said.
The police said an initial investigation "revealed that a terrorist armed with a knife stabbed three civilians on Nahalat Binyamin Street and one civilian on Gruzenberg Street".
A later police statement said: "The terrorist, a 28-year-old foreign national, was neutralised".
Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv said it had received three stabbing victims, including one in "a serious condition with a knife wound to the neck" who was taken into surgery.
The Nahalat Binyamin Street and the surrounding neighbourhood of Tel Aviv are popular for their restaurants and nightlife.
The area was cordoned off by the police, while an AFP journalist saw the dead body of a man on the street.
Israeli media identified the suspect as Abdelaziz Kaddi, a Moroccan and a US green card holder, according to an ID found on his body.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said the attacker was interrogated on arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and was cleared to enter the country.
He pressed the head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, Ronen Bar, to "investigate this serious incident and learn lessons as soon as possible".
The Shin Bet said the attacker was interrogated and subjected to "additional tests". "It was decided that there was no information establishing grounds to prevent his entry into Israel for security reasons," the agency said, saying it would probe the matter.
Hamas in a statement praised the attack as a "heroic stabbing operation" that showed resistance to Israel was "increasing".
It was the second stabbing in Tel Aviv in four days, after another suspect seriously wounded a person on Saturday before being shot by an armed civilian.