West Bank attackers killed after attacking Israeli troops

Four Israeli soldiers were wounded on Friday and four attackers were killed as weeks of stabbing, shooting and car ramming attacks by Palestinians showed no sign of easing.

The attacks were the latest in more than two months of "lone wolf" assaults that have challenged Israel's control over the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

In the first attack, which took place overnight in the flashpoint city of Hebron, two Palestinians stabbed an Israeli soldier before being shot dead, the army said.

"Two assailants stabbed a soldier in Hebron," a military statement said. "In response to the threat, forces fired at the attackers, resulting in their death."

Hebron, a city where 500 rightwing Jewish settlers live behind barbed wire fences in the middle of 200,000 Palestinians, has been one of the front lines in the wave of attacks.
The southern West Bank city is home to the Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and revered by followers of both religions.

The two later attacks took place in the northern West Bank near settlements north of Ramallah.

Two Israeli soldiers were injured near the settlement of Ofra, with the driver who drove at them shot dead, an army statement said.

"A Palestinian rammed his vehicle at IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers" it said. "In response forces on site fired at the assailant."

The villagers rushed to collect the body, apparently worried that the Israeli army would seize it and refuse to return it to the families, an AFP journalist on site reported.
Israel has refused to return a large number of the bodies of alleged assailants in recent weeks.

Palestinian security sources identified the dead attacker as 19-year-old Anas Basam Hamad from near Ofra.

The soldiers were taken to hospital, where medics described their condition as not life threatening.

- Seemingly random violence -

That attack came just hours after another some 20 kilometres (12 miles) away in which a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier before being shot dead.

"The assailant exited his vehicle and stabbed the soldier in the neck" at a checkpoint, a statement said.
Since October 1, almost daily attacks and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers and violence between Palestinians and Israeli settlers have killed 109 Palestinians (including an Israeli Arab), 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.

More than half of the Palestinians have been alleged assailants, and others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during clashes.

While recent violence has focused on the West Bank -- where the international community considers all Jewish settlements illegal -- seven people were injured in the Gaza Strip coastal enclave on Friday, medical sources said.

Unusually, two Palestinians were wounded by tank fire after entering the no-go zone close to the border fence east of the city of Khan Yunes.

After warning shots were ignored, "forces fired live fire and tank rounds" and the suspects retreated, an army spokeswoman said.

Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP the two wounded were in moderate condition.

In the West Bank, Israel has strengthened key checkpoints but the seemingly random nature of the violence -- with few attackers working in conjunction with formal militant groups -- has made a security response harder.

Israeli officials privately accept that the violence is likely to continue.

Palestinians are frustrated by the failure of decades of peace talks and the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, with many also losing faith in their own leadership.

On Friday, Palestinian security forces prevented a protest against Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas from taking place in Ramallah.
Source: AFP