Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian at West Bank checkpoint

Israeli forces shot a Palestinian man who they claim ran towards them with a knife near a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

Israel’s defence ministry said the man approached the checkpoint between Israel and the central West Bank city of Tulkarem “with a knife in hand, with the apparent intention of attacking security personnel”. The ministry said one of the soldiers called on the attacker to stop, “and upon his failure to do so fired towards and neutralised” him.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the man as a Palestinian national and said he had died of his injuries.

Israel’s defence ministry circulated a photo of the scene of the incident.

A black plastic sheet, which ministry spokeswoman Betty Ilovici said was laid over the Palestinian’s body, could be seen against the roadside with the checkpoint metres away.

Violence has simmered in the West Bank since US-sponsored peace talks with Israel broke down in 2014.

Israel captured the occupied West Bank in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Palestinians want to establish a state there and in the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Last week, the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh pledged to stop Israeli soldiers from entering Area A of the occupied West Bank, the part of the territory under Palestinian control according to the Oslo Peace Accords.

“We will prevent the Israeli occupation army from raiding Area A, not with violence but with our bodies,” Mr Shtayyeh told the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds in an interview published on Saturday. “Israel is invading the PA’s territories, and the signed agreements do not allow for such invasions.”

Palestinians say that such raids have been on the increase in recent months.