Palestinian shot dead and Israeli stabbed in Jerusalem

Agencies | Jerusalem

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Israeli Soldiers shot dead a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, hours after a knife attack in east Jerusalem left an Israeli man in a serious condition.

The Palestinian health ministry said Rabi Arafah Rabi, 32, was hit by “a bullet to the head” at a checkpoint southeast of the city of Qalqilya.

An Israeli military spokesman said soldiers fired on a car containing three suspects near Qaliqilya as the vehicle sped off after hitting a soldier when they tried to stop it for inspection.

“The soldiers fired toward the vehicle,” the spokesman said. 

“The soldier did not need medical treatment. We are aware of reports regarding a hit. The incident is under review.” 

Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has surged in recent months, amid an uptick in anti-Israeli attacks and near daily raids by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier on Saturday, police said officers “neutralised” a Palestinian stabbing suspect in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem after an attack that left an Israeli man in serious condition.

Police said the man was stabbed in the back.

Israeli media said the stabbing victim was a religious Jew in his 20s.

“His condition is serious but stable,” said a statement from Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tsedek hospital.

“The suspect stabbed a passer-by with a knife and fled” the scene north of the Old City, police said.

They said the suspect, who is 16, was later found at a football pitch in the Sheikh Jarrah district of east Jerusalem, not far from the scene of the stabbing.

Police said he tried to run off when he saw officers coming, but an officer gave chase.

At one stage he turned to the police officer “with an object in his hand, the officer feared for his life... shot at him and neutralised” him.

The suspect’s condition is not known but police said they had detained both his father and his brother for questioning.

More than 115 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed this year, the heaviest toll in the West Bank for nearly seven years, according to the United Nations.

Israel seized east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

Some 200,000 Israelis live in the sector as well as 300,000 Palestinians.

Around 475,000 Israelis now live in settlements across the West Bank, alongside some 2.8 million Palestinians, who in different areas of the territory are subject to Israeli military rule or live under limited Palestinian governance.

On Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said a Palestinian was killed overnight in clashes with soldiers in the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin, and three other Palestinians were wounded in the clashes.