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Israel's internal security service says it has arrested two residents of southern Israel suspected of stabbing to death an Israeli soldier for nationalistic reasons.

The Shin Bet would not identify them Monday, but Israeli media reported they were likely Arab Bedouins from the southern Negev desert.

Ron Yitzhak Kokia, a 20-year-old soldier, was stabbed to death late Thursday in the southern city of Arad and his weapon was stolen. His assailants fled the scene.

Since September 2015, Palestinians have killed more than 50 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. Israeli forces have killed more than 260 Palestinians in that time. Israel says most of them were attackers and that others died in clashes with Israeli troops.