Palestinian stabs elderly woman on bus before attacking two others in Rishon LeZion, while 71-year-old man was seriously hurt in Netanya knife attack

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Two Israelis have been seriously wounded in stabbing attacks that injured four people in two Israeli cities.

The two attacks – which occurred within hours of each other on Monday in Rishon LeZion near Tel Aviv and later in the coastal city Netanya – further reduced the prospect that weeks of violence between Israelis and Palestinians is coming to an end.

In the first incident a 19-year old Palestinian from the West Bank city of Hebron, which has featured heavily in recent incidents, attacked and wounded several people, including an 80-year-old woman, in a stabbing spree in central Israel before being arrested.

That in turn came several hours after Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian who they said tried to stab a soldier at a northern West Bank checkpoint.



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According to Israeli police and media, the incident in Rishon LeZion began when a Palestinian stabbed an elderly woman on a bus and then ran into the street and stabbed another woman before continuing to run down the street and carrying out another attack.

A police spokeswoman, Luba Samri, said that after stabbing the first two people, the attacker had tried to enter a clothing shop but a woman in the store slammed a door on him.

The Palestinian then went into another shop and stabbed a woman. Bystanders apprehended him and then police detained him.

Yitzhak Scharf, of Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center, said that the elderly woman was stabbed in the back and waist, sustaining damage to blood vessels and fracturing her hip. A 40-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the chest. Another person was lightly wounded, he said.

In the second incident, a 71-year-old man was stabbed and seriously injured in Netanya in the early evening, reportedly by a 23-year old Palestinian from the West Bank city of Tulkarem who was shot and arrested.

The unrelenting spate of attacks, including within the so-called green line in Israel, which demarcates the pre-1967 borders from the occupied territories, have underlined both the persistence of the current violence and Israel’s inability to bring it under control.

Many of the initial attacks were centred on Jerusalem but as Israeli security forces swamped that city, the focus moved to Hebron in the southern West Bank and to other Israeli cities.



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A series of Palestinian attacks linked to tensions over the highly sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, known as Temple Mount to Jews and al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, began in mid-September. In addition to the near-daily attacks, violent demonstrations have erupted in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with Palestinian stone-throwers clashing with Israeli troops.

Eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings. Sixty-nine Palestinians have died by Israeli fire, including 43 who Israel says were involved in attacks or attempted attacks.

Rights groups say some of the killings were unjustified because the Palestinians did not pose a threat to soldiers’ lives.

Israeli media reported that a military investigation found that the shooting death of an 18-year-old Palestinian woman by Israeli forces last month could have been avoided. The woman was shot as she brandished a knife at a military checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron, according to the army’s account.

The military said the woman refused to heed repeated warnings to stop and that shots were then fired when troops felt threatened.

On Monday, Palestinian security forces held a military salute at a funeral ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah for two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire. One had tried to grab a soldier’s rifle in Jerusalem, and the other had tried to stab a soldier at a West Bank checkpoint, according to the Israeli military.

The Palestinian Authority has been holding official funeral parades in recent weeks to prevent militant groups such as Hamas from using such ceremonies to whip up popular support, a senior Palestinian security official said on condition of anonymity.