Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who tried to stab one of them in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the military said.
The incident occurred at a bus stop along a main highway near the large Jewish settlement of Ariel.
"A Palestinian attempted to stab a soldier at the site. Our troops fired at him and he was killed. There were no casualties among our forces," the military said in a statement.
There was no immediate Palestinian comment. Israel's Shin Bet internal security service said the assailant, whom it did not name, was a resident of the West Bank village of Biddya and had no record of anti-Israeli activity.
Biddya was the home village of a 47-year-old Palestinian woman who died of a head injury on Friday caused by what her husband said were rocks thrown at their car by Israeli settlers.
The Shin Bet statement, in its reference to Biddya, made no mention of Friday's incident, which Israeli police are investigating.
Palestinians began a wave of knife and car ramming attacks in the West Bank and in Israel in 2015, after peace talks with Israel collapsed. Such incidents have become more sporadic.
Palestinians want the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, to be part of an independent state and most countries consider Jewish settlements built in the area to be illegal. Israel disputes this.
______________
Read more
West Bank village braces for another two-state death blow
Hamas leader says won’t stop Gaza marches for ‘diesel fuel and dollars’
New Zealand activists raise funds for Palestine charity after fine by Israel
______________
Meanwhile, in the West Bank village of Khan Al Amar four activists were arrested for obstructing military preparations to demolish the buildings. Two of those arrested were Israeli nationals and two were Palestinians.
Activists reported that police pushed back dozens of people who had gathered to block the slated demolition of the Bedouin village.
The four were blocking a bulldozer moving in to clear a pool of sewage that had pooled near the village from a nearby Israeli settlement.
Earlier this month, Israel's Civil Administration in the West Bank said that a sewage pipe burst in the area and the military was dispatching a truck to pump the waste out.
Israel's Supreme Court recently rejected a final appeal against plans to demolish the village. Israel says Khan Al Ahmar was built illegally but Palestinians and other critics say the demolition aims to displace residents in favour of Israeli settlement expansion.
