Palestinian teenager caught with knife at Tomb of the Patriarchs

Security forces detained a Palestinian teenage girl who tried to sneak a knife into the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday, police said.

Border Police officers became suspicious of the teenager as she approached a security stand close to the religious site.

A search uncovered the knife, and when the officers instructed her to follow their orders, she began brandishing the weapon at them, according to police.

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Officers overpowered the suspect without using weapons and detained her for questioning.

The incident came after earlier Sunday an IDF soldier was killed, another was seriously injured, and a civilian critically hurt in a stabbing and shooting attack near the settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank.

The Tomb of the Patriarchs is sanctified by Jews and Muslims as the burial place of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. In recent years, there have been numerous incidents of Palestinians trying to smuggling knives into the complex, as well as stabbing attacks on Israelis.