Palestinian tries to stab soldiers, is shot dead — IDF

A Palestinian man attempted to stab a group of soldiers outside the Arab village of Teqoa in the central West Bank on Thursday, the army said.

The assailant was shot dead by the troops on the scene, according to the military. None of the soldiers were injured.

The IDF said the attempted stabbing occurred at a checkpoint the army had set up near the entrance to the Palestinian village of Teqoa.

“In response to the immediate threat, forces fired shots towards the assailant,” the army said in a statement.

The Palestinian assailant was later identified by Arabic media as 26-year-old Muhammad Hussein Ahmad Tnouh.

The nearby Jewish settlement of Tekoa alerted its residents to the attack, telling them to keep away from the area and off the road until further notice as a riot had broken out. Approximately half an hour later, residents were sent an all-clear message telling them the roadway was open.

Tekoa’s security department also called for contractors to remove their Palestinian workers from the settlement immediately.

In a WhatsApp message group for residents of Tekoa, one person recalled that Tnouh had worked in the settlement from approximately 2010 to 2015.

According to the resident, Tnouh was caught sneaking into Jerusalem without a permit and was thus barred from working inside Israel. He is also newly divorced, and his daughter died recently. The settler said he believed the 26-year-old was most likely acting out of “desperation” than a desire to kill soldiers.

Throughout the past two years of regular terror attacks, the Shin Bet security service and the IDF have noted that many Palestinian assailants seem to be carrying out attacks because of personal and mental issues, rather than ideology. Officials believe in many case the attackers are trying to commit “suicide by solider.”

Last Monday, a soldier was injured in a car ramming attack also outside Teqoa.

The driver of the vehicle was shot dead by security forces at a junction on the road between the settlements of Tekoa and Efrat in the central West Bank south of Jerusalem, the army said.

The injured soldier was approximately 20 years old. He suffered moderate wounds and received treatment at the scene by both civilian and military medics, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said in a statement.

According to the military, the assailant, who has yet to be identified, exited his vehicle after the ramming attack and tried to stab another soldier before he was shot.

Army medics treated the Palestinian man on the scene, but he was pronounced dead a short while after the car ramming.

According to an eyewitness, soldiers on the scene had earlier been checking passing Palestinian vehicles “without a barrier or protection.”

The past two years have seen an ongoing wave of violence in the West Bank and Israel, though it has waned in recent months.

Since September 2015, mainly Palestinian assailants have killed 43 Israelis, two visiting Americans, a Palestinian man and a British student, mainly in stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks. In that time, some 280 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, a majority of them attackers, according to authorities.

The Israeli government has blamed the terrorism and violence on incitement by Palestinian political and religious leaders compounded on social media sites that glorify violence and encourage attacks.