Hebron – Palestinian Running With Knife Toward Soldier Shot And Killed

Hebron – Israeli soldiers shot a knife-wielding Palestinian dead who had tried to stab them on Sunday in the West Bank city of Hebron, the military said, in the latest violence of a bloody six-week spell. The military said the shooting took place during a violent riot and that no Israelis were harmed.

An Israeli police spokeswoman said that at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank a Palestinian holding a knife ran toward a security officer who called on him to stop.

“When he did not heed those calls the security man shot toward him in order to neutralize him and as a result the terrorist was killed,” spokeswoman Luba Samri said. Palestinian medical officials said he was 18-years-old.

In recent days, Hebron has become a main flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence, with near-daily deadly confrontations at Israeli checkpoints that guard ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers in the center of the city. In these incidents, Palestinians have been shot dead after the military said they stabbed or tried to stab soldiers.

Hebron has been divided since the late 1990s, as part of what was meant to be an interim agreement ahead of a final peace deal that never materialized. Israel controls the city center, where 850 Jewish settlers live, while the remaining areas of the city are under Palestinian self-rule.