Pair of Palestinians shot to death in occupied West Bank
JERUSALEM — Two Palestinians, one a teenager, were killed in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, hours after police apprehended two Palestinian men suspected of killing three Israelis last week.
It was the latest episode of violence during weeks of Palestinian attacks in Israel, and Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank that have left at least 18 Israelis and some 30 Palestinians dead.
The Palestinian man died after he was shot by Israeli troops trying to cross the security fence near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.
The Israeli military also said an Israeli civilian shot a Palestinian armed with a knife who entered a West Bank settlement south of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Mutassim Atallah, 17, was killed in the Tekoa settlement.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian man allegedly stabbed an Israeli police officer outside Jerusalem’s Old City. Other officers at the scene near the Damascus Gate shot the assailant.
Paramedics said the officer was hospitalized in moderate condition. The attacker’s condition was not clear.
Sunday’s incidents were the latest in string of violent episodes in recent weeks, including deadly attacks inside Israel, an Israeli military crackdown in the West Bank, and clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at a holy site in Jerusalem sacred to Jews and Muslims.
Earlier Sunday, Israeli police said forces captured two Palestinians who killed three people in a stabbing attack last week and fled the scene, sparking a massive manhunt and keeping the country on edge.
The two attackers went on a stabbing rampage in the ultra-Orthodox city of Elad on Thursday, Israel’s Independence Day, killing three and wounding at least four others before bolting.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told his Cabinet that forces captured “terrorists awash with incitement who killed with axes and unimaginable cruelty.” He said Israel was establishing a civilian national guard that would be deployed in situations like the kinds of attacks the country has witnessed in recent weeks.