IDF shoots, wounds Palestinian throwing fire bomb at Rachel's Tomb

Military says it hit the attacker in incident at Bethlehem shrine; Palestinian sources say 18-year-old shot in leg, in stable condition

Israel Defense Force soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian about to throw a Molotov cocktail at Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem in the West Bank, the army said just after midnight Sunday.

The man “tried to throw a fire bomb at the tomb compound,” the army said. “The soldiers opened fire and foiled the attack. They identified hitting [the attacker.]”

The Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing security sources, said an 18-year-old was shot in the leg and taken to a Bethlehem hospital in stable condition.

Rachel’s Tomb, believed to be the burial place of the Biblical matriarch, is just outside Bethlehem in the West Bank, separated from the town by Israel’s security barrier.