Palestinian shot dead by Israeli soldiers in West Bank
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 south-east of the city of Qalqilya.
An Israeli military spokesperson 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 spokesperson 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.
“One person was critically wounded and taken to hospital” after the knife attack, police said.
Israeli media said the stabbing victim was a religious Jew in his 20s. “The suspect stabbed a passerby with a knife and fled” at 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, they said. The suspect’s condition is unknown.
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 UN.
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.