Palestinian woman with knife arrested in Hebron

A Palestinian woman carrying a knife was arrested outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday morning.

Israeli security forces stopped the woman for questioning after she raised their suspicions, police said. In searching her bag, they found a knife among her other belongings.

The woman, a resident of Hebron in her 20s, was detained for questioning. Police said they were examining all possible motives.

After a few months of comparative calm, a rash of terror attacks in recent weeks have raised tensions again.

Three IDF soldiers were lightly injured in a possible car-ramming attack near the Neve Daniel settlement outside of Bethlehem on Wednesday, the army said. Security officials were treating the incident as a suspected terror attack by the Palestinian driver, who was seriously hurt, although an army spokesperson did not specify what led them to this conclusion.

On Tuesday evening, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian woman as she attempted to stab one of them at a bus stop near the West Bank settlement of Ariel, the army said. None of the soldiers was hurt in the incident.

On Friday, Rabbi Miki Mark was killed in a drive-by shooting outside of Hebron, in a terror attack that also left his wife and two children injured.

Earlier that day, a Palestinian woman was shot dead in Hebron when she tried to stab security forces near the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

According to Palestinian sources, the would-be attacker was a relative of the teenage terrorist who the previous day, Thursday, murdered 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel as she slept in her bedroom at home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba.

In response, the IDF has bolstered troops around Hebron — the most populous city in the West Bank — and has placed a closure on Bani Na’im, the hometown of several attackers.