The military said a Palestinian pulled out a knife during a security check in the West Bank city of Hebron earlier Saturday and stabbed a soldier, prompting forces to open fire and kill the attacker.
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An Israeli police spokesman said an officer was lightly wounded in the alleged stabbing attack.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, condemned what she called Israel’s “extra-judicial killings” of the attackers but did not condemn the attacks themselves.
Military sources said Monday that the two, residents of Hebron and aged 17-20, were targeted after they allegedly tried to stab Israeli troops near a checkpoint at the entrance of the Ibrahimi mosque in the southern city of al-Khalil, also known as Hebron.
The incident outside Herod’s Gate, near a bustling Palestinian commercial street, follows a weekend surge in Palestinian attacks that shattered weeks of relative calm. Kurd is from Ras el Amoud neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
Palestinians, many of them acting alone and with rudimentary weapons, have killed at least 33 Israelis and two visiting Americans in the attacks.
Palestinians have accused Israel of using excessive force and say that some of those killed posed no threat or had no intention of attacking anyone.
Four Palestinians, one of whom held Jordanian citizenship, were shot dead over the weekend during assaults on Israelis, according to Israeli authorities.
Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion on occupied land that Palestinians seek for an independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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Monday’s was the sixth attack on Israeli security forces or civilians since Friday after a three-week lull in a almost year-long wave of violence.
