Arab shot dead after stabbing Israeli soldier and taking his weapon

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Israeli forces clash with Palestinian stone-throwers in the West Bank, at least one Palestinian is arrested and two wounded.
An Israeli border police officer standing guard near the scene of an attack involving a Palestinian woman and Israeli man in the Old City of Jerusalem, on Oct 7, 2015. PHOTO: EPA

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli police shot dead an Arab man in central Israel on Wednesday (Oct 7) after he allegedly wounded a soldier with a knife and took his weapon, authorities said.

The soldier suffered a wound to the hand and was robbed of his gun in Kiryat Gat, while the alleged attacker hid in a building, where he was shot dead by police, the military and police said.

Earlier in the day, an Arab woman stabbed a Jewish man in a new knife attack in Jerusalem's Old City before being shot and seriously wounded by her victim, Israeli police said. The 35-year-old man, who was armed, was only lightly wounded and managed to draw his gun after she stabbed him in the back, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. The woman was taken to hospital in serious condition, she added.

In a separate incident, Jewish settlers shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, the Red Crescent and witnesses said. The 18-year-old was in intensive care, but in a stable condition after the shooting east of Bethlehem, a medic told Agence France-Presse.

Israeli police confirmed that a Palestinian had been wounded when shots were fired in response to stone throwing, but did not say who fired them. The shooting happened on a section of road linking two Jewish settlements that passes close to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahir and has been the scene of frequent clashes between settlers and Palestinians.

Those have increased in recent days following the killing of a settler couple in front of their young children in a drive-by shooting on their vehicle that sparked a string of revenge attacks on Palestinians.

Soaring tensions over the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound have sparked three weeks of deadly violence in annexed east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a Thursday (Oct 8) visit to Germany due to the unrest that has hit Israel and the West Bank, an Israeli official said.

"The trip has been postponed due to the security situation," the official said on Wednesday (Oct 7) on condition of anonymity, amid the clashes and attacks involving Palestinians, Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers.

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