Israeli soldier killed, 2 hurt in stabbing at West Bank gas station

An Israeli soldier was killed on Monday afternoon in a stabbing attack at a gas station on Route 443 in the West Bank, close to the central town of Modiin.

Two others were hurt in the attack. One of the wounded, an Israeli woman, was lightly hurt when her car was hit by gunfire from security forces. The other, a female Israeli soldier in her 20s, was lightly injured in the stabbing and evacuated to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment.

The Palestinian assailant was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in the area, according to Channel 2. He was named as Ahmad Taha of the West Bank village of Qatanna, near Jerusalem. Taha arrived at the gas station specifically to carry out an attack, according to the TV report.

Magen David Adom paramedics attempted to revive the 18-year-old soldier who sustained severe abdominal wounds, but were forced to declare him dead at the scene.

“A young man… was lying on the ground unconscious, with stab wounds to the upper body, on the highway next to the gas station. Nearby, there was a young woman… approximately 20 years old, with stab wounds to her limbs. We gave both medical treatment on the scene,” said MDA medic Yitzchak Aryeh Goldfarb.

Earlier Monday, a young Palestinian man armed with a knife was shot and killed as he approached IDF soldiers near a West Bank junction where an Arab woman attempted to stab Israelis on Sunday, the police said.

The victim, who has not been named, is the twenty-second Israeli casualty since the wave of violence broke out in October.

The IDF forces on the scene reportedly shot and injured the would-be assailant.

No Israelis were harmed in the attempted attack, which took place at a junction near the Samaria Brigade headquarters in the northern West Bank.

On Sunday, a Palestinian woman was run over and shot while attempting to stab an Israeli civilian at the junction. The bystander, former Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika, said he rammed his car into the woman after seeing her attempting to stab a girl standing at a bus stop where a number of Israelis were standing. The attacker was subsequently shot by security forces at the scene.

The Monday attacks came hours after two Palestinian girls stabbed a 70-year-old Palestinian man in central Jerusalem with a pair of scissors. Police identified the two attackers as 14 and 16 years old, from northern Jerusalem. The 16-year-old died at the scene and the 14-year-old was detained, a police spokesperson said. She was taken to an Israeli hospital in critical condition, according to news reports. A 27-year-old Israeli was lightly injured by police fire at the scene.