Palestinian woman detained in West Bank town after allegedly trying to stab officers

A woman attempted to stab Israeli troops with a box cutter before being apprehended and arrested at the scene in the flashpoint northern West Bank town of Huwara on Friday, Border Police said.

One of the officers noticed the woman approaching him and ordered her to stop before firing in her direction. The woman was then tased by another officer before she was able to injure anyone, Border Police said.

The young woman’s identity could not be immediately verified.

Huwara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank, thanks to a main thoroughfare running through the town also being used regularly by Israelis to travel to and from settlements. There are plans to build a bypass road for settlers to avoid having to travel through the town, but work has dragged on for years.

There have been several shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers in the town in recent months, including the killing of two brothers in February.

In separate attacks in Huwara last month, a Palestinian woman stabbed a soldier before being shot dead, and a Palestinian driver rammed into a soldier before turning himself in two days later.

A Palestinian woman is seen being detained by Israeli security forces in Huwara. Some initial reports suggest she attempted to stab soldiers. No immediate comment from IDF. pic.twitter.com/rEVz9NxOCR

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 9, 2023

There have also been a handful of instances of settler violence targeting the Palestinian residents of Huwara, including a deadly rampage that unfolded hours after the February attack in which the two Israeli brothers were shot dead. A 37-year-old Palestinian man was killed, some 300 were wounded — four seriously — and dozens of buildings and vehicles were torched.

The West Bank has seen a major uptick in violence over the past year, with the Israeli military conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank, in the wake of a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks.

Earlier Friday, a Palestinian man was shot dead at the Rantis Checkpoint northwest of Ramallah after assaulting a soldier and attempting to snatch his weapon, the military said.

The military suspected the background to the incident was criminal-related given the stolen car. “The incident is under review,” the IDF added.

Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 20 people and left several more seriously hurt.

According to a tally by The Times of Israel, 116 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that span, most of them during clashes with security forces, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under more questionable circumstances.