Two Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers after attempting to stab them at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, the military says.
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Speaking by telephone, an Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed that both suspects were killed near the Jewish-only settlement of Bekaot, adding: “Israeli forces thwarted the attack and shot them”.
Saturday’s incident is the latest in more than three months of near-daily Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers that have killed 21 people, mostly in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming assaults.
The U.S. State Department is condemning an Israeli decision to expand the boundary of an existing West Bank settlement bloc.
Deaths in West Bank city bring total number of Palestinians killed in wave of violence since October 1 to 152.
The Israeli army alleged the men had tried to stab soldiers manning the checkpoint, but witnesses said they did not see the pair wielding knives. At least 134 Palestinians died by Israeli fire, including 93 said by Israel to be attackers. At the same time, amid rain storms and bitterly cold weather, violent clashes broke out between Israeli forces and tens of Palestinian youths who came to the area around the house and clashed with the soldiers.
Almost 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since the start of last October, according to Maan.
The controversial practice, which critics claim amounts to collective punishment, is widely used in the West Bank and resumed in east Jerusalem in November after a five-year hiatus.
They were buried in the West Bank village of Sair. Palestinians say the Tel Aviv regime is seeking to change the status quo of the al-Aqsa mosque, a highly revered place for the Muslims across the world.
Israel has employed a raft of security and punitive measures in a bid to stem attacks.
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The Palestinian Wafa news agency named those killed as Ali Muhammad Aqqab Abu-Maryam and Said Judah Abu-al-Wafa and said they had been shot “in cold blood”.
