Palestinian attacker killed in West Bank: Police

Jerusalem: A Palestinian man was on Sunday killed after he stabbed an Israeli woman in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said.

The man stabbed a 20-year-old woman at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

Israeli soldiers at the scene responded immediately and shot and killed the attacker, Xinhua news agency quoted the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson as saying.

The wounded woman was admitted to the Shaare Zedek hospital here.

It was the third Palestinian assailant killed by security forces amid attacks in the West Bank during the day.

Earlier in the morning, a Palestinian woman, armed with a knife, tried to stab two women at a bus stop near the Jewish settlement of Itamar, southwest of Nablus in the West Bank, the Israeli military said.

A civilian driver, who is a settler serving as the head of a regional committee in the area, noticed the attacker and ran her over, before an Israeli soldier shot her and she was pronounced dead. No Israeli injuries were reported.

Not long afterwards, a Palestinian man driving a taxi allegedly tried to run over pedestrians near Kfar Adumim, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem, according to the Israeli police.

The alleged assailant left his vehicle and attempted to stab bystanders, wounding an Israeli lightly. A citizen nearby shot and killed the assailant, police spokeswoman Samri added.

Seventeen Israelis and 80 Palestinians have died in the two-month-long wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, in stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks.

More than 80 Palestinians have been killed during this period, in clashes with Israeli security forces, while others were gunned down by security forces and vigilante citizens after allegedly trying to commit attacks against Israelis.

The current wave of violence was sparked amid strife over the flashpoint holy site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in east Jerusalem, holy to both Jews and Muslims, and quickly spread throughout the country amid dim prospects of a peace treaty based on the two-state solution.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, home to about five million Palestinians, in the 1967 Mideast War.

The Palestinians wish to establish a state on these territories.