Israeli policemen stand next to the covered body of a Palestinian driver, who was shot dead after he allegedly attempted to attack civilians, on a highway near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Adumim in the West Bank yesterday.

The Palestinian government says Israel is carrying out unlawful killings and “accusing every victim of holding a knife”

Agencies
Jerusalem


Attacks involving knives and a car-ramming in the occupied West Bank yesterday left an Israeli woman dead, while all the alleged assailants were killed when security forces and civilians intervened.
Three attacks, including one by a teenage girl, were the latest in a nearly two-month wave of violence that had shown signs of subsiding last week before a new series of assaults took place on Thursday.
The Palestinian government said in a statement that Israel was carrying out unlawful killings and “accusing every victim of holding a knife” or ensuring a knife was dropped at the side of alleged attackers.
With the violence defying international efforts to restore calm, US Secretary of State John Kerry is to travel to Israel and the West Bank to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tomorrow.
Yesterday, Netanyahu reiterated that the attackers appeared to be acting on their own, posing a challenge to security forces.
He said “citizens must be on maximum alert”.
No Israelis were reported seriously injured in the first two attacks, but the third led to the death of 20-year-old Hadar Bukris, who was taken to hospital with major stab wounds to her head and chest.
Yesterday’s first attack saw a 16-year-old Palestinian girl who allegedly tried to stab an Israeli civilian run over by a Jewish settler and then shot dead by soldiers.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the attack was at a junction south of Nablus.
Palestinian security officials confirmed the alleged attacker had died of her wounds and identified her as Asheraqat Qatanani from Askar refugee camp near Nablus.
A Jewish settler in the area, Gershon Mesika, told army radio he hit the girl with his car before a soldier shot her.
Later, a Palestinian driving a taxi tried to run over civilians and then charged at them with a knife before a civilian shot him dead, police said.
The statement provided no further details on the civilian. A hospital spokeswoman said a 51-year-old Israeli was lightly injured when hit by the taxi.
Also in the West Bank, near the Gush Etzion block of settlements south of Jerusalem, the young Israeli woman was stabbed and the alleged Palestinian attacker was shot dead by security forces afterwards, police said.
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency identified the alleged attacker as Issam Thawabteh, 34, from Beit Fajjar near Bethlehem.
The wave of violence since October 1 that has left 89 dead on the Palestinian side, including one Arab Israeli, as well as 16 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.
Many of the Palestinians killed have been alleged attackers.
Violence shattered a nearly week-long lull on Thursday when knife, gun and car-ramming attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank killed five people, including an American, three Israelis and a Palestinian.
It was one of the deadliest days since the violence first erupted in October.
On Friday, dozens of Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire in clashes in the West Bank and along the Gaza Strip border, while on Saturday, police arrested a Palestinian who allegedly stabbed four Israelis in the southern city of Kiryat Gat.
The Shin Bet yesterday identified the alleged assailant as Mohamed Tarda, 18, from a village near southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Netanyahu said he had ordered security forces to “co-ordinate their efforts in the Hebron district, from which most or all of the attacks are originating”.
The army said they had arrested eight Palestinians in the Hebron area overnight.
Palestinian security forces said 16 were arrested, and residents said many roadblocks were set up at exits from the city and at villages in the area.
Kerry’s trip will be his latest attempt to ease tensions, having met Netanyahu in Washington this month and in Berlin in October.
He also met Abbas in Amman last month as well as Jordan’s King Abdullah II, and endorsed a plan to install security cameras around the flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Clashes in September between Israeli police and Palestinians at the highly sensitive compound, sacred to both faiths and which Jews revere as the Temple Mount, preceded the current wave of violence.
US officials said they were not expecting to strike any new agreement on a return to peace talks during Kerry’s visit, and would simply try to walk the parties back from the immediate violence.
lNetanyahu said yesterday he is seeking to have Arab Israelis stripped of their citizenship for joining the Islamic State group to fight in the Syrian conflict.
Last week, Israeli police said six Arab Israelis were arrested on suspicion of planning to travel to Syria to join IS in a case sparked by a man’s paraglider journey.
On October 24, a 23-year-old entered Syria illegally on a paraglider from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, prompting an investigation by Israeli security forces.
Israeli authorities say about 45 Israeli Arabs have joined the ranks of IS in recent months, with some having been killed.
Ten who returned to Israel were arrested.
“I have asked the attorney general to advance steps to revoke the citizenship of those who join ISIS,” Netanyahu said yesterday, using another acronym for IS.
“Whoever joins ISIS will not be an Israeli citizen. And if he leaves the borders of the state, he will not return,” he said.
“I think this lesson is becoming increasingly clear throughout the international arena and it is fitting that we lead this effort as well.”