A Palestinian shot by police during a stabbing attack against Israeli officers in the West Bank city of Hebron died of his wounds Monday, a hospital statement said.
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The Israeli authorities said four Arabs who had tried to attack security officers and civilians with knives and a vehicle were shot and killed in separate assaults on Friday and yesterday, shattering the late-summer calm. After Monday’s incident, a 38-year-old policewoman was in serious condition from a stab wound to her neck, the Shaare Tzedek hospital said.
In a separate incident late on Thursday, Israeli forces shot a Palestinian man during a military raid in the village of Beit Ula, in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron. In a pattern repeated more than two hundred times, the attacker charged the two police officers with his slashing knife, wounding the pair – one critically and one seriously – before being shot and seriously wounded by one of the wounded cops.
The second suspect then pulled a knife and tried to stab the border policemen, who opened fire on him too, police said, noting one of their officers was “very lightly wounded in his hand” during the incident.
The attack in Hebron took place near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is a holy site to both Muslims and Jews.
Since October 2015, 229 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, in what aid organizations and Palestinian officials say are extrajudicial killings; use of excessive force; and a “shoot-to-kill” policy when alleged attackers pose little to no threat to heavily armed Israeli troops.
It was the fifth attack on Israeli security forces or civilians since Friday after a three-week lull in a almost year-long wave of violence. About 215 Palestinians were killed in the same period.
Violence since mid-September has claimed the lives of at least 230 Palestinians and 34 Israelis.
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“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing extremist government are creating a culture of violence, intimidation, and lawlessness that is destroying the chances for peace”, Ashrawi continued, adding that the government’s “volatile actions threaten to plunge the entire region into further instability, extremism and chaos”. No Israelis were injured but three teens who were in the path of the oncoming truck were treated for shock. A total of five people have been killed by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours. Israel says the vast majority were attackers.
