It said locals threw petrol bombs and rocks at the soldiers, who opened fire at one of them after riot-dispersal measures failed.
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The attacks foiled were at different stages of preparation; in many cases, youths or teenagers were caught after posting on social media that they were preparing to carry out attacks against Jews and were willing to die in the process, the sources said.
Khaled Jawabrah from Al-Arub refugee camp, north of the flashpoint city of Hebron, died after being shot by Israeli forces with a live round as he was about to hurl a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli vehicle, the army said.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the assailant as 51-year-old Samir Seresi.
The violence began in mid-September over tensions surrounding a sensitive Jerusalem holy site, before spreading across Israel and into Palestinian territories.
A Palestinian assailant was shot and killed by Israeli forces after stabbing and seriously wounding an Israeli soldier in the West Bank on Wednesday, the latest in two months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the reports.
Despite heightened security, according to a senior military officer, the army has proposed easing restrictions on Palestinians and providing ammunition to Palestinian security forces to avert attacks.
Eighty-seven Palestinians have been killed since October 1, some while carrying out assaults and others in clashes with Israeli forces.
An Israeli official said government officials, however, have rejected the military’s proposals. The Palestinians say it’s rooted in frustrations over Israel’s almost half a century-long occupation. Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank are seen as illegal under worldwide law and major stumbling blocks to peace efforts since they are built on land Palestinians see as part of their future state.
In the West Bank, Kerry said the situation for Palestinians is “very dire” and assured them the US wants to “help contribute to calm and to restore people’s confidence in the ability of a two-state solution to still be viable”.
Israeli military officers, as well as foreign observers, have credited Palestinian security forces with containing some of the violence with preemptive arrests of potential militants. He said Abbas’s official television station should be shuttered.
“We are already taking vigorous action, which I have no doubt will deliver results”, Steinitz, a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Israel Radio. It could also be that it will require months more.
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“There can be no peace when we have an onslaught of terror, not here, not anywhere else”, Netanyahu said.
