Palestinian Woman Killed After Attack Near Cave of the Patriarchs
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— Israeli troops killed a Palestinian woman whom they said had tried to stab them in Hebron. In a separate incident, a Palestinian man died from inhaling tear gas at a riot near Ramallah.
The woman, identified on Ynet as Sara Hajaj, 27, on Friday tried to carry out a stabbing attack near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of Hebron, Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said. Border Police shot her after she had tried to stab an officer at a checkpoint with a knife, Israeli police said.
Palestinian media did not immediately identify the man who reportedly died of tear gas inhalation on Friday.
Hajaj was a a native of the village of Bani Naim in the Hebron area, Ma’an news reported. On Thursday, a teenage boy from the same village, 17-year-old Muhammad Nasser Tarayrah, stabbed and murdered a 13-year-old girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, in Kiryat Arba — a Jewish settlement near Hebron. He was killed by security services in
Ariel’s house, where he stabbed her to death in her bedroom. The Israel Defense Forces imposed a curfew on the village.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to strengthen Kiryat Arba, a major friction point between Palestinian and settlers in the West Bank, following the murder. On Friday, his office said in a statement, Netanyahu spoke with the parents and other family members and said: “We strengthen this place. Apart from the fighting, we will make it stronger. I will sit with the Defense Minister and we will decide how to strengthen the community.”
To see Ariel’s room, “to see the blood stains next to her bed and the books and clothes of a small child, this is shocking,” Netanyahu added during his visit to the settlement Friday. “It reminds us again who we are facing. They want to uproot what has been planted and we will deepen the roots. They will not make us leave here. I was impressed by this splendid family. Their spirit will not break and neither will ours. We will deepen the roots.”
In a second attack on Thursday, an armed Israeli civilian shot dead a Palestinian man in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya after he allegedly carried out a stab attack, leaving two Israelis wounded.
Israeli police Friday detained a 30-year-old resident of Jaffa for suspicions that the man assisted a now slain Palestinian to carry out a stab attack in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on Thursday, according to Israel’s police spokesperson.
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