Stabbing attack on IDF soldier foiled in West Bank

IDF soldiers thwarted a stabbing attempt in the West Bank on Monday after a man tried to attack a soldier at the Shomron Brigade junction south of Nablus, the army said.

Soldiers were able to overpower the assailant without opening fire and the suspect was detained.

There were no reports of injuries in the incident.

The attacker was carrying a screwdriver, according to reports.

“The terrorist put a bag down about 50 meters from the stop and approached in a suspicious fashion wielding a weapon. A young girl also waiting at the stop alerted the soldiers to the terrorist’s approach and the soldiers subdued the terrorist without shooting him,” a United Hatzalah EMT at the scene said in a statement.

Images of the aftermath of the incident were posted to social media.

The Shomron Brigade junction is on Route 555 close to the Itamar settlement in the West Bank and is used by local residents as a hitchhiking post.

Earlier this month two Border Police officers were moderately wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem.

The assailant was shot and critically wounded during the attack. He later died of his injuries.

Though a marked drop in violent incidents has been recorded by security officials in recent months, 40 Israelis, two Americans, a Palestinian and an Eritrean national have been killed in a spate of stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks that began a year and a half ago.

According to AFP figures, some 250 Palestinians, a Jordanian and a Sudanese migrant have also been killed, most of them in the course of carrying out attacks, Israel says, and many of the others in clashes with troops in the West Bank and at the Gaza border, as well as in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks.

The spate of Palestinian attacks that began in October 2015 was dubbed the “lone wolf” intifada, as many of the attacks were carried out by individuals who were not connected to any terror group.