Fourth attack on Israelis in uptick in violence

A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier Saturday in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron before he was shot dead, the army said, in the fourth attack on Israelis in less than 24 hours.

A military statement said the attacker drew a knife during a routine security check in Hebron's Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, wounding the soldier.

"In response to the immediate threat, forces at the scene shot the assailant, resulting in his death," the statement said.

The Palestinian health ministry named the man killed as Hatem al-Shaloudi, 25.

He was a resident of Tel Rumeida, as was 16-year-old Mohammed Rajabi, shot dead during an attack on Friday.

Rajabi was one of three alleged assailants killed Friday while carrying out attacks on Israelis, two in and around occupied Hebron and one in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Another man was killed on Thursday, also in Hebron, after allegedly trying to evade arrest by the Israeli military.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi condemned Israel's actions.

"Israel is flagrantly employing a systematic and wilful policy of summary executions against the Palestinian people; such provocative acts are in direct violation of international law and conventions," she wrote in a statement Saturday.

"We call on the international community to engage rapidly and effectively and to hold Israel accountable with punitive measures before it is too late."

An Israeli military spokeswoman told AFP that the latest attack was "another expression of the incitement (against Israel) on the Palestinian street and on social networks." 

Since October, 228 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in ongoing violence, according to an AFP count.

Israeli forces say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead during protests and clashes.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since capturing it in the 1967 Six Day War.

In the Gaza Strip on Friday, a Palestinian medical official said that Israeli troops at the border fence east of Gaza City shot and slightly wounded three Palestinian youths.

An army spokeswoman said they had been rioting.

The uptick in violence was a reminder of persistent tensions alarming the international community and came as UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned the two-state solution was "further than ever" from becoming reality.

Previously there had not been an attack in three weeks. 

- 'Occupation must end' -

International powers have criticised Israel's continued settlement expansion in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, with more than 500,000 Israelis now living in outposts that the international community considers illegal, as well as incitement to violence by Palestinian leaders.

"Despite warnings by the international community and the region, leaders on both sides have failed to take the difficult steps needed for peace," Ban said on Friday.

"Let me be absolutely clear: settlements are illegal under international law. The occupation, stifling and oppressive, must end," he added.

Ban also hailed former Israeli president Shimon Peres, the last of Israel's founding fathers, who suffered a major stroke this week. 

The veteran Israeli leader won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiating the Oslo peace accords.

The United Nations has been struggling to find a way to re-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has stalled since a US-led diplomatic effort collapsed in April 2014.

Source: AFP