Palestinian tries to stab soldiers near Ariel, is shot dead

In the third attack in the space of three hours, a Palestinian man attempted to stab IDF soldiers on Wednesday at a checkpoint near the West Bank Palestinian village of Salfit, close to the Ariel settlement.

The attacker was shot dead and there were no reports of injuries to security forces.

“An assailant armed with a knife attempted to stab forces at a checkpoint south of Qalqilya,” the army said in a statement. “The force thwarted the attack, responding to the immediate threat, and shot the assailant, resulting in his death.”

On Tuesday night, IDF soldiers sealed off the village of Zawiya, located in the area. It is the hometown of Abed el-Rahman Mahmoud Radad, an 18-year-old Palestinian who stabbed an Israeli man multiple times in Petah Tikva earlier that day. The victim, Yonatan Azarihab, managed to pull the knife out of his own neck and stab his assailant, who died of his wounds.

Yonatan Azarihab, who was stabbed in a terror attack in Petah Tikvah on March 8, 2016, speaks from the hospital (Channel 2 screenshot)

The attempted stabbing Thursday morning came hours after two terrorists carried out a shooting attack in Jerusalem that seriously injured an Israeli man.

The pair first opened fire from a moving vehicle at a bus near the Ramot junction in the northwest of the capital, failing to cause any injuries. As they drove away from the scene police began a massive search for the shooters and their car was later identified driving near the New Gate on the Old City in Jerusalem.

As police approached the vehicle, the terrorists opened fire. Police shot back, killing both shooters.

An Israeli man was hit in the chest during the crossfire and taken to Har Hatsofim hospital in critical condition.

Vanderbilt graduate student Taylor Force was killed Tuesday March 9, 2016 in a terror attack in Jaffa. (Facebook)

The attacks came a day after three separate shooting and stabbing incidents in different locations around Israel left one man dead — US tourist Taylor Force — and a dozen others injured.

In all, twenty-nine Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in a wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence since October. Some 180 Palestinians have also been killed, around two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.