Palestinian shot dead after stabbing soldiers

Israeli police examine the body of Mohammed Karakra, 27, a Palestinian from the West bank village of Sinjel who was shot dead after stabbing two Israeli soldiers on April 8, 2105. Atef Safadi / EPA

JERUSALEM // A Palestinian was shot dead on Wednesday after stabbing two Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank, wounding one seriously.

The incident took place near the entrance to Shilo settlement – not far from the Palestinian village of Sinjil – on route 60, the main road linking the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus.

“Earlier today, two IDF soldiers were stabbed by a Palestinian attacker near the Sinjil junction. One soldier was seriously wounded, the second soldier was lightly wounded,” said an Israeli military statement.

Palestinian medics identified the attacker as 27-year-old Mohammed Jasser Karakra from Sinjil, saying he had been shot twice in the head.

His body was transferred by Israel to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Israel’s emergency services said that a young man of around 20 had been taken to Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek hospital “in serious condition with a stab wound to his upper body.”

They did not mention the second soldier who was reportedly the one who shot dead Karakra.

The website of Haaretz newspaper said the two soldiers were sitting in an ambulance which was on standby in the Shilo area during the Passover holiday.

It said the soldier who was lightly wounded had opened fire on the attacker after he stabbed his colleague in the neck.

Naftali Bennett, outgoing economy minister and head of the far-right Jewish Home party, hailed the soldier for killing the attacker rather than arresting him.

“From Iran to Shilo, our enemies have only one goal: to hurt as many Jews as they can. I congratulate the security forces who killed the terrorist. This must be the fate of anyone who hurts innocent Jews,” he said on army radio.

Wednesday’s stabbing was the second knife attack in a week to target Israeli soldiers and the latest in a wave of lone-wolf attacks which have been on the rise since last summer’s 50-day war in the Gaza Strip.

Last Thursday, a Palestinian lightly wounded an Israeli paratrooper who tried to stop him from crossing the West Bank security barrier in an area west of Nablus. The attacker was arrested.

The latest incident comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu works to piece together a new coalition government after a general election that saw him controversially ruling out the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch.

* Agence France-Presse