Palestinian woman arrested with knife at Hebron checkpoint

Border Police troops arrested a Palestinian woman Wednesday in possession of a knife near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a police spokesperson said.

Soldiers found the blade in the suspect’s bag during a routine security check at a checkpoint in the West Bank city.

She was handed over to security forces for questioning, police said.

The woman was identified as 23-year-old Shafa Aref al-Atrash by the official Palestinian Authority news outlet Wafa.

The Tomb of the Patriarchs, a flashpoint site holy to Jews and Muslims alike, has been the scene of numerous stabbings and attempted stabbings since Israeli-Palestinian violence escalated last October.

On August 9, a Palestinian woman was arrested at the same checkpoint after threatening security forces with a knife.

The city of Hebron was a scene of intense clashes on August 16, in which 35 Palestinians were reportedly wounded in the al-Fawar refugee camp, as the IDF carried out an overnight operation to uncover weapons and ammunition.

During the clashes, 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Hashash was injured and later died of his wounds.

The Hebron area has been a key center of a wave of deadly violence that has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since last October.

Thirty-four Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in the wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence. Over 200 Palestinians have also been killed in that time period, most of them while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.