Ramallah: A Palestinian who ran at Israeli troops with a knife in the flashpoint city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday was shot dead by soldiers, Israel’s army said.
The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the death but provided no details on the incident, saying only the “Israeli occupation opened fire on him”.
The incident started near an Israeli military post, the army said.
“Soldiers identified a terrorist armed with a knife running towards them,” a spokeswoman said.
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A physical confrontation followed, “then he ran toward a nearby building while still armed with a knife”, she said.
“The soldiers then fired towards him, thwarted the attack and he was killed.”
No soldiers were wounded, the spokeswoman said.
Palestinians have launched sporadic attacks against Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank.
Israeli forces have been accused of responding with excessive force in some instances.
Tensions run particularly high in Hebron, where several hundred Israeli settlers live in the city centre under heavy army protection among around 200,000 Palestinians.
It is also the location of a key holy site known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
[source_without_link]Agence France-Presse[/source_without_link]