Israel: troops kill Palestinian who tried to stab soldier

JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said its forces shot and killed a Palestinian on Thursday who it said attempted to stab a soldier near a West Bank Jewish settlement.

The Palestinian had a knife and tried to stab the soldier as he was guarding a bus stop near the settlement of Ofra, the military said. No soldiers were injured.

Later Thursday, the military said, a gunman opened fire at Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, lightly wounding one soldier. The gunman fled, and forces went searching for him, the military said.

The incidents were the latest in more than a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence in which Palestinians have killed 36 Israelis and two visiting Americans. More than 224 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, most of them said by Israel to have been attackers. The rest were killed in clashes with Israeli troops.

Israel says the violence is driven by a Palestinian campaign of incitement. Palestinians say it is rooted in frustrations from Israel’s nearly 50-year occupation of the West Bank.