Police: Palestinian shot dead after trying to stab officers at West Bank checkpoint
Spokesman says suspect, named as Ahmed Muhammad Atatreh, ran at crossing near Shaked settlement while brandishing knife
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A Palestinian man who allegedly attempted to stab Border Police officers at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank was shot dead on Saturday afternoon.
A Border Police spokesman said the suspect ran toward the checkpoint near the settlement of Shaked, known as “checkpoint 300,” while brandishing a knife.
“Border Police troops operating at the crossing fired at the terrorist and neutralized him,” the spokesman said.
The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry identified the man as 33-year-old Ahmed Muhammad Atatreh, and said he had died of his wounds.
No soldiers or officers were hurt in the incident.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been elevated for the past year, with the IDF conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks.
Earlier Saturday, two Palestinian gunmen were shot dead as Israeli troops carried out a raid against a terror operative’s hideout apartment in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 19 people and left several more seriously hurt. At least 107 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that span, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated.
The incident on Saturday came as tensions were high, five days after Israel launched an offensive against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip.
