Two Palestinians die in West Bank violence
Two
Palestinians have been shot and killed in separate incidents in the
West Bank as Israel announced plans to build a new fence near the
flashpoint city of Hebron in an effort to contain a two-month spate of
violence.
In the first incident, the Israeli military said "a
violent riot erupted" when troops raided the village of Qattana
overnight to search for ammunition and arrest suspected assailants. The
Palestinians hurled firebombs and stones at troops, according to the
army.
Troops shot 21-year-old Yehya Taha in the head, according to
Palestinian health ministry spokesman Mohammed Awawdeh, and the youth
later died of his wounds in hospital.
Also on Thursday, Israeli
border guards shot and killed a Palestinian attacker wielding a knife
near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri
said the man got out of a taxi near a military post and began running
toward officers, brandishing a knife. No Israelis were hurt in that
attack, Samri added.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the assailant as 51-year-old Samir Seresi.
The two deaths were the latest in a two-month wave of violence.
Since
mid-September, 19 Israelis have died in Palestinian attacks, mostly
stabbings and shootings. At least 93 Palestinians have also died,
including 58 said by Israel to be attackers. The others died in clashes
with Israeli forces.
In an effort to quell the violence, Defence
Minister Moshe Yaalon announced Israel will build a fortified fence near
Hebron, a southern West Bank city that has been a flashpoint in the
current unrest.
He said the fence would fill in a gap in the
security barrier Israel began building in the early 2000s in response to
Palestinian attacks.
Yaalon told MPs that construction of the fence will take a year.
The
fence will have similar technology as the recently constructed Israeli
fence on the Egyptian frontier meant to deter infiltration of militants
or migrants seeking asylum.
Originally published as Two Palestinians die in West Bank violence
