Policemen stabbed, shot at in separate West Bank attacks

Two police were lightly injured in separate shooting and stabbing attacks in the West Bank early Thursday.

The policeman, 43, was stabbed in the shoulder by a 14-year-old female resident of the Jordan Valley village of Ouja, outside Jericho, police said. The policeman was directing traffic there.

He was taken to the nearby Haemek Medical Center for treatment, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

After stabbing the officer, the assailant fled. The injured policeman chased after her and arresting her without incident, according to a police spokesperson.

A knife used by a Palestinian woman to stab an Israeli police officer in the shoulder in the West Bank village of Ouja, near Jericho, on March 3, 2016. (Israel Police)

She has refused to answer police questions, the official said.

The policeman had been directing traffic around a tree felled during heavy winds and rain overnight over Route 90, a main north-south highway that runs through the village.

Overnight, shots were fired at a police vehicle at Rehelim junction in the central West Bank south of Nablus.

A police officer suffered light injuries and was treated at the scene. The cruiser also sustained damage.

Forces were dispatched to the area to apprehend the attacker.

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Police continued their search for a man who attacked a resident of the Talmei Bilu community in the northern Negev desert on Wednesday night.

The Talmei Bilu resident was in a storeroom when a man broke in and attacked him. The two fought briefly until the assailant sliced the storeroom owner’s arm and fled the scene, a police spokesperson said.

On Thursday, police said they believed the incident was criminal — a startled burglar — but were still looking into the possibility that it was a terror attack.

Soldiers had hours earlier poured into the area to search for attackers behind a stabbing on two troops guarding at the entrance to the settlement of Har Bracha.

The two soldiers were lightly injured in the incident.

Earlier Wednesday, two Palestinian teens sneaked into the settlement of Eli and stabbed a man outside his home before being shot and killed.