Nablus, Palestine // A 15-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces after allegedly attempting to stab a soldier in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday.
Qusay Abu Al Rub became the latest teenager to die in a five month wave of violence in which more than 170 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces.
The shooting took place at a checkpoint near the Bitot Junction south of Nablus. An Israeli army spokeswoman said Israeli forces fired on the teenager when he attempted to stab the soldier.
Witnesses told the Palestinian Maan news agency that the Israeli soldiers fired more than 10 rounds at Qusay, who was carrying a knife and walking towards them. No soldiers were injured.
“The force responded to the imminent danger, thwarting the attack and firing towards the assailant, resulting in his death,” the Israeli army said.
Qusay came from the West Bank town of Qabatiya, where 10 of the Palestinians recently killed have come from, including three behind a gun and knife attack in early February that killed a border policewoman.
Israeli forces imposed a four-day lockdown on the village following the February 3 attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.
Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.
Separately on Sunday, a Palestinian was arrested while allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier east of the West Bank city of Hebron, near the village of Bani Naim.
Palestinian security sources confirmed a 15-year-old was arrested in the area.
Many of the Palestinians killed since the start of October have been accused of carrying out knife attacks, while others were shot dead during protests and clashes. Twenty-seven Israelis, an American and an Eritrean have been killed in the ame time.
Many have accused Israel of using excessive force in response to the incidents.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army chief told high school students heading for compulsory military service that troops should not use excessive firepower in combating the attacks.
“When there’s a 13-year-old girl holding scissors or a knife and there is some distance between her and the soldiers, I don’t want to see a soldier open fire and empty his magazine at a girl like that, even if she is committing a very serious act,” Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot said.
“Rather he should use the force necessary to fulfil the objective.”
Hardliners, including senior members of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own Likud party, responded angrily to his comments.
Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz called them “mistaken and unfortunate” and liable “to cause soldiers to hesitate to open justified fire against terrorists in future.”
“This is a meaningless debate,” Mr Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“What the chief of staff said is self-evident,” he added. “Everything that was said afterwards was said either from lack of understanding or a desire to score political points. Both are unacceptable.”
*Agence France-Presse
