Palestinian stabs police officer in Israel, shot dead
JENIN, WEST BANK: Fresh clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants rocked the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday as a Palestinian stabbed a police officer in Israel before being shot dead.
Israeli troops launched a fourth day of operations around Jenin after an assailant from the district shot and killed three people in a Tel Aviv bar last week in an attack that stunned the country.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett overnight visited the reopened bar that was the scene of Thursday’s bloody carnage, which sparked an all-night manhunt before the shooter was killed in a firefight.
“We will continue to live our lives and at the same time we will fight where they are located, in their bases, at their source - and, please God, we will win,” Bennett vowed.
Jenin residents told AFP on Tuesday that new fighting had broken out after multiple gun battles in recent days.
Palestinian official news agency Wafa said “clashes erupted” between young Palestinian men and Israeli soldiers “who fired live bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at them”.
The latest violent incident in Israel came Tuesday in the Mediterranean port city of Ashkelon, where police said an officer was checking a person who aroused his suspicion when “the attacker pulled out a knife and attacked the officer”.
The officer “responded quickly, fired and neutralised the suspect, whose death was declared on site,” police said.
The officer was hospitalised with light wounds from the attack using a kitchen knife.
The assailant was in his 40s and from the city of Hebron in the West Bank, police said.