A Palestinian suspect was shot and killed after allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier and stealing his gun in Kiryat Gat in southern Israel, an Israeli police spokesperson told Ma’an.
Micky Rosenfeld told Ma’an that an Israeli soldier was injured after he was “stabbed by a suspect.”
The suspect — identified as Amjad Hatem al-Jundi, 20 — grabbed the soldier’s gun and fled the area into a nearby building, Rosenfeld said. Officials in the area at the time closed in on the building and chased the suspect down before he was ” identified, shot, and killed on the scene,” he added.
He added the incident was currently under investigation as a “terror attack.”
Hours earlier, an Israeli civilian shot and injured a Palestinian woman in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem after she allegedly tried to stab him.
Rosenfeld said that the armed Israeli man, 35, shot the woman, 18, from close range after she tried to attack him with a knife, referring to the woman as a “terrorist.”
Medical sources told Ma’an the teen sustained serious injuries.
Ongoing Escalation
The alleged stabbings inside of Israel came shortly after an Israeli settler was reportedly attacked and injured by two Palestinians in her car Wednesday morning near the Teqoa settlement in the occupied West Bank.
The two Palestinians, aged 18, were shot and injured by Israeli forces following the attack, locals said.
Tensions have been high between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinian residents continue attempts to prevent settler attacks in their towns and villages.
Two Israeli settlers were shot and killed last week by alleged Palestinian gunmen in the northern West Bank, spurring ongoing reprisal attacks by Israeli settlers.
The couples’ death has also brought widespread Israeli raids and detentions to Palestinian towns across the West Bank, and two Palestinians, aged 13 and 18, have been shot dead during clashes.
In occupied East Jerusalem, meanwhile, two Israelis were killed in an alleged stabbing attack last week.
The Palestinian attacker was shot dead on scene, and another Palestinian was shot hours later after allegedly stabbing an Israeli.
The Old City has been sealed to Palestinians since, after Israeli police passed an order to prevent entry to all expect Israeli Jews, tourists, and Palestinian residents and shop owners in the area.
The escalating tensions in the area come after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel in a speech to the UN General Assembly for its ongoing military occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
(Ma’an)
