Police thwart attempted stabbing in Hebron
Assailant, a Palestinian girl who may be as young as 14, is shot and wounded in the attack; police disperse protesters after incident
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
Border Police officers thwarted an attempted stabbing near the Tomb of Patriarchs shrine in the West Bank city of Hebron Sunday evening, police said.
The alleged assailant, a Palestinian girl initially identified as 14 years old, was shot and critically wounded.
Police said the teen arrived at a checkpoint near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, took out a knife and attempted to stab a Border Police officer.
The officer pushed her away and shot her, a police spokesperson said.
“She appears to have died,” the spokesperson said, though one rescuer said she was in critical condition.
Police later clarified that the assailant was alive, but remained in critical condition in hospital.
No other injuries were reported in the incident.
A violent protest erupted after the incident, with police employing riot control methods to hold back the demonstrators.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs has been a focal point in a nearly five-month surge in stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks by Palestinians, often youths.
Earlier in the day, a Palestinian man was shot and killed after trying to stab officers at a checkpoint south of Jerusalem.
In another incident Sunday, two Palestinian teens near Jenin in the northern West Bank were shot and killed by Israeli forces who were responding to reports of stone throwers in the area.
