IDF says Palestinian tries to stab soldier in West Bank, is shot dead
Military says suspect was 'neutralized' after approaching troops with knife near al-Fawar refugee camp, near Hebron
A Palestinian man who attempted to stab Israeli soldiers near the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday was shot by troops, the military and medics said. He later died of his injuries.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the suspect, armed with a knife, approached troops at a guard post near the al-Fawar refugee camp and tried to stab them.
“The forces fired at him and neutralized him,” the IDF said in a statement, attaching a photo of the knife.
Images from the scene showed the suspect being treated by army medics before being taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
The Rescuers Without Borders emergency service said his death was declared there.
The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry named him as 22-year-old Sharif Hassan Rabaa.
No Israeli soldiers were hurt in the incident, the military said.
The incident came as tensions remain high in the West Bank.
The IDF has pressed on with an anti-terror offensive to deal with a series of attacks that left 31 people in Israel dead in 2022, and seven more in an attack last month.
The IDF’s operation has netted more than 2,500 arrests in near-nightly raids. It also left 171 Palestinians dead in 2022, and another 43 since the beginning of the year, many of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, though some were uninvolved civilians.