JERUSALEM (AFP) – An 18-year-old Palestinian threatened Israeli border police with a knife at a flashpoint junction in the occupied West Bank on Thursday and was shot dead, Israeli authorities said.
The incident occurred at the Tapuah junction near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, where a number of attacks have taken place in recent months, police said.
Police said: “A suspect approached border police suspiciously.
“The border police called upon him to identify himself,” spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement.
“He continued towards them and then pulled out a knife. Border police responded and the terrorist was neutralised. No injuries to officers at the scene.”
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the Palestinian had been killed and identified him as an 18-year-old from the West Bank city of Qalqilya.
A wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks erupted in October 2015, but the violence has greatly subsided in recent months.
Since October 2015, 242 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed, according to an AFP count.
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.
Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some died in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
The vast majority of attacks have been carried out by lone wolves, many of them young.
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