A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier yesterday in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron before he was shot dead, the army said, in the fourth attack on Israelis in less than 24 hours.
A military statement said the attacker drew a knife during a routine security check in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood and wounded the soldier.
“In response to the immediate threat, forces at the scene shot the assailant, resulting in his death,” the statement said.
Photo: EPA
On Friday, three alleged assailants were killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis, two in and around occupied Hebron and one in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Another man was killed on Thursday, also in Hebron, after allegedly trying to evade arrest by the Israeli military.
Since October, 228 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Eritrean and one Sudanese have been killed in ongoing violence, according to an Agence France-Presse count.
Israeli forces said most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead during protests and clashes.
The uptick in violence was a reminder of persistent tensions that continue to alarm the international community and came as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the two-state solution was “further than ever” from becoming reality.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since capturing it in the 1967 Six-Day War.
In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian medical official on Friday said that Israeli troops at the border fence east of Gaza City shot and slightly wounded three Palestinian youths.
An army spokeswoman said they had been rioting.
Previously there had not been an attack in three weeks. International powers have criticized Israel’s continued settlement expansion in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, with more than 500,000 Israelis now living in communities the international community considers illegal, as well as incitement to violence by Palestinian leaders.
“Despite warnings by the international community and the region, leaders on both sides have failed to take the difficult steps needed for peace,” Ban said on Friday.
“Let me be absolutely clear: settlements are illegal under international law. The occupation, stifling and oppression, must end,” he added.
Ban also hailed former Israeli president Shimon Peres, the last of Israel’s founding fathers who suffered a major stroke this week.
The veteran Israeli leader won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 along with former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiating the Oslo peace accords.
The UN has been struggling to find a way to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been halted since a US-led diplomatic effort collapsed in April 2014.
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