Israeli forces thwart stabbing attack in West Bank

Israel's military soldiers thwarted a knife-wielding Palestinian assailant in the West Bank on Monday morning, arresting the suspect without shooting him.

A military spokesperson said in a statement that the man attempted to stab a soldier who was guarding a crowdy bus stop south of the city Nablus.

"Forces subdued the attacker," the spokesperson said, adding that there were no injuries. The suspect was taken into custody.

Since September 2015, individual Palestinians have carried out or attempted to carry out hundreds of attacks. The Israeli forces usually respond with fire, frequently killing the suspects.

Palestinians and human rights organizations accuse Israel of using excessive violence to control the unrest.

They charge that some of the suspects were killed although they did not attempt to perpetrate an attack, but were mistaken to be attackers by the soldiers.

In the wave of violence, Palestinians have killed 41 Israelis and two U.S. nationals, while Israeli forces and civilians killed at least 238 Palestinians, most of them alleged attackers.

Israelis also killed a Jordanian tourist and asylum seekers, two asylum seekers, one Eritrean and one Sudanese, who were mistaken to be attackers.

Israel accuses the Palestinian National Authority of "inciting" the unrest. The Palestinians say it is the result of 50 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, home to more than 5 million Palestinians.

 
source: Xinhua