A Palestinian managed to stab a Zionist soldier Saturday in the occupied West Bank city of Al-Khalil before he was shot dead, the Israeli army said, in the fourth attack on Israelis in less than 24 hours.
A Zionist military statement said the Palestinian hero drew a knife during a routine security check in Al-Khalil’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood, wounding the soldier.
“In response to the immediate threat, forces at the scene shot the assailant, resulting in his death,” the statement said.
The Palestinian health ministry named the martyred man as Hatem al-Shaloudi, 25.
He was a resident of Tel Rumeida, as was 16-year-old Mohammed Rajabi, shot dead during an attack Friday.
Rajabi was one of three Palestinians martyred Friday while carrying out attacks on Israelis, two in and around occupied Al-Khalil and one in occupied east Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Another man was martyred Thursday, also in Al-Khalil, after allegedly trying to evade arrest by the Zionist military.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi condemned the Israeli actions.
“Israel is flagrantly employing a systematic and willful policy of summary executions against the Palestinian people; such provocative acts are in direct violation of international law and conventions,” she wrote in a statement Saturday.
“We call on the international community to engage rapidly and effectively and to hold Israel accountable with punitive measures before it is too late.”
In the Gaza Strip Friday, a Palestinian medical official said that Israeli occupation troops at the border fence east of Gaza City shot and slightly wounded three Palestinian youths.
An army spokeswoman claimed falsely that they had been rioting.
International powers have criticized Israel’s continued settlement expansion in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, with more than 500,000 Israelis now living in outposts that the international community considers illegal.
“Despite warnings by the international community and the region, leaders on both sides have failed to take the difficult steps needed for peace,” Ban said Friday. “Let me be absolutely clear: settlements are illegal under international law. The occupation, stifling and oppressive, must end,” he added.
Source: AFP
