Police arrest Palestinian teen with knife in Hebron
Suspect, 16, was carrying a blade when he approached border guards outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs, police say
A Palestinian teenager was detained by security forces on Wednesday when he approached a Border Police post in Hebron with a knife, police said.
There were no injuries to security forces and no reports of injury to the suspect, a 16-year-old resident of the flashpoint West Bank city, Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
Officers’ suspicions were aroused by the suspect’s behavior as he drew near them at an entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. They then noticed he was carrying a weapon and arrested him, Samri said.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs shrine, revered as the final resting place of several biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, is among the holiest sites to Judaism and is also celebrated by Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.
A spate of attacks by Palestinians over the past two months has seen almost daily stabbing and shootings against Israeli civilians and security forces, both in the West Bank and within Israeli territory. Much of the unrest, including frequent rioting, has focused in and around Hebron.
On Friday, gunmen ambushed an Israeli vehicle, killing Rabbi Yaakov Litman and his 18-year-old son Netanel, near the southern West Bank settlement of Otniel, near Hebron.
On Tuesday night, near the West Bank village of Turmus Aya, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on IDF troops. The soldiers returned fire, and one of the gunmen was killed; there were no casualties among the troops.
The Times of Israel Community.