AFP / April 12, 2022
Police say assailant was man in his 40s from flashpoint city of Hebron/Al-Khalil who was being checked by officer
A Palestinian man stabbed a police officer with a kitchen knife and was shot dead in the Israeli port city of Ashkelon/Asqalan.
Police said an officer was checking a person who had aroused his suspicion on Tuesday when “the attacker pulled out a knife and attacked the officer”. The officer “responded quickly, fired and neutralized the suspect”.
The officer was hospitalized with light wounds. The assailant was a man in his 40s from the flashpoint city of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, police said.
There has been a rising tide of violence among Israelis and Palestinians. Four shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks in Israeli cities have left 14 people dead since late March. Over the same period, Israeli forces have killed 15 Palestinians, including assailants, according to an AFP tally.
On Sunday. Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian woman who stabbed a police officer in the centre of Hebron/Al-Khalil, where about 1,000 Jewish settlers live under heavy military protection among 200,000 Palestinians.
On the same day, the army shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian woman who they said failed to heed warning shots near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Israeli forces have been rounding up suspects in the northern West Bank after a man from Jenin shot and killed three people in Tel Aviv last week.
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Israeli forces kill Palestinian after alleged attempted stabbing
Al-Jazeera / April 12, 2022
Palestinian man, aged in his 40s, shot dead by Israeli forces in the port city of Ashkelon/Asqalan.
Israeli police say its forces have shot dead a Palestinian man in the port city of Asqalan, alleging that he had attempted to stab a police officer with a kitchen knife.
Witnesses told Al-Jazeera that the incident happened on Tuesday morning when Israeli police entered a work site to check whether the Palestinians there had permits.
“The Palestinians are saying that the man did not pose any threat and that the Israeli police were acting in a very violent way,” said Al-Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Jenin, where tensions have heightened as Israeli forces round up Palestinians after a man from the city shot and killed three people in Tel Aviv last week.
The man killed on Tuesday was reportedly in his 40s and his name was not immediately known.
Israeli police said an officer began checking a person who aroused his suspicion when “the attacker pulled out a knife and attacked the officer”.
The officer “responded quickly, fired and neutralized the suspect, whose death was declared on site”, police said. The officer was hospitalized with light wounds, they added.
Since late March, four shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks in Israeli cities have left 14 people dead.
Over the same period, Israeli forces have killed at least 15 Palestinians.
On Sunday, Israeli police said security forces killed a Palestinian woman who stabbed and lightly wounded a policeman in the centre of Hebron/Al-Khalil, where about 1,000 Jewish people live under heavy military protection in illegal settlements among 200,000 Palestinians.
The same day, the Israeli army shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian woman who they said failed to heed warning shots near the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Following the Tel Aviv attack, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met top security officials and granted “all security forces full freedom” of operations. He also announced that a major crossing in the north of the West Bank near Jenin would be closed indefinitely.
The Hamas group that rules the besieged Gaza Strip praised the attack but did not claim responsibility. “Resistance operations are a natural response to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people,” senior Hamas official Mushir al-Masri told Al-Jazeera.
Last year, Israel bombarded Gaza for 11 days after protests and confrontations during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 245 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children. Twelve people in Israel were also killed.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has taken a number of steps aimed at calming tensions, including issuing thousands of additional work permits for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
