Palestinian with knife, meat cleaver arrested outside West Bank settlement

Police on Saturday said they foiled an attempted stabbing attack, detaining a Palestinian man carrying a knife and a meat cleaver near a West Bank settlement.

The man was stopped by traffic police near the settlement of Beit El in the northern West Bank. As he was acting suspiciously, officers searched his vehicle and found the weapons.

The man, a 28-year old from the village of Dura, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, was taken for questioning. He told police he was planning to carry out a stabbing attack, police said.

Earlier in the day, border police at the Shuafat checkpoint near Jerusalem arrested a Palestinian who tried to go through the metal detector while carrying a knife.

In figures published this week the Shin Bet security service said that there was a drop of 40 percent in the number of terrorist attacks nationwide documented in June, when 220 such incidents were registered.

The first half of June was Ramadan, a Muslim month-long holiday when observant worshipers fast from sunrise to sundown. Ramadan usually features a spike, not a decrease, in terrorist activity. Israeli security services massively increased their presence in Jerusalem in June to prevent disturbances.

JTA contributed to this report