MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / April 4, 2023
Israeli civilians apprehend a Palestinian suspect and hand him over to the police for interrogation.
A Palestinian man wounded two Israeli soldiers in a stabbing near a military base in central Israel on Tuesday.
One of the soldiers was critically wounded and the other was in mild condition, according to Israel’s emergency service.
The suspect was apprehended by civilians and taken by police for interrogation. After an initial search for other possible suspects, police said the man likely acted alone.
He was identified as a 20-year-old Palestinian from the occupied West Bank city of Hebron/Al-Khalil.
The stabbing comes as tensions heightened over the weekend following deadly raids by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank and increased restrictions on Palestinian’s access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli forces have killed at least 92 Palestinians in 2023 in what the Palestinian health ministry described as the deadliest start to a year since 2000. Palestinians have killed at least 14 Israelis in the same period.
Three Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank cities of Nablus and Hebron on Monday and Sunday. On Friday, a Palestinian was killed at Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli police.
At Al-Aqsa, Israeli forces have continued to limit who can enter the mosque and when, as tens of thousands flock to the site every night to observe the holy month of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers are set to storm the mosque in large numbers to mark the Jewish holiday of Passover starting from Wednesday.
Some settlers have called on authorities to allow them to conduct ritual animal slaughter in the courtyard of the mosque, which risks provoking Palestinians and Muslims worldwide.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic site where unsolicited visits, prayers and rituals by non-Muslims are forbidden according to decades-long international agreements.
Israeli groups, in coordination with authorities, have long violated the delicate arrangement and facilitated raids of the site and performed prayers and religious rituals.
