For the second day running a Palestinian with a knife has attacked an Israeli woman in a West Bank settlement, marking a new departure in almost four months of deadly violence.



In the incident on Monday, the attacker apparently entered the Tekoa settlement and stabbed the 30-year-old settler, the Israeli military said, before being shot by the settlement’s head of security.

The latest attack came as Dafna Meir, a nurse and mother of six, was buried on Monday. She was stabbed to death on Sunday outside her house in Otniel in the south Hebron hills in an attack witnessed by one of her children.

Shoham Ruvio, a spokeswoman for Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek hospital, said the woman stabbed in Tekoa was five months pregnant. She said she was moderately wounded after being stabbed in the upper body and that there was no damage caused to the foetus. Ruvio identified the woman as Michal Froman, the daughter-in-law of a late settler rabbi known to have promoted coexistence between Arabs and Jews.

Palestinian workers exit the Tekoa settlement south of Jerusalem on 18 January, after Israeli authorities denied them entry following a stabbing attack. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

The Israeli military announced on Monday that it was banning several thousand Palestinian workers from the entering the Gush Etzion bloc of Israeli settlements where many are employed. “In light of situation assessments and following recent terror attacks … Palestinian workers have been instructed to leave [Gush Etzion] communities,” an army statement said.

Analysts said increased tensions could prompt settlers, who have a strong voice in Israel’s rightwing government, to urge policymakers to impose more travel and employment restrictions on Palestinians. If that happens, it could further increase tensions.



The latest incidents have added to the growing sense of crisis over the continuing violence that has seen almost daily attacks and which has claimed the lives of about 180 people on both sides, including 100 Palestinians Israel says were killed during attacks and attempted attacks.

Meir was attacked on her doorstep at about 5pm on Sunday by an assailant with a knife – who Israeli security forces believe was Palestinian – before the attacker fled the scene. Three of Meir’s children were at home at the time of the attack as she fought with her attacker at the entrance of her home.

Following Meir’s death, the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, promised further security measures on Monday, pledging to “strengthen the communities” after the deadly stabbing.

“Whoever tries to harm us, we will bring him to justice,” Netanyahu said. “In the end he will be found and he will pay the full price.” Netanyahu has made such promises before, many of which have quickly been rolled back.

Meir’s funeral in Jerusalem on Monday was attended by hundreds of people, including Israeli politicians and Jewish settlers carrying rifles. Her husband sat in the front row sobbing with two of their children in his lap.

Meir’s 17-year old daughter Renana witnessed the attack. Delivering the eulogy at her mother’s funeral, she said: “You left us with an enormous vacuum. We won’t drink tea at midnight any more … You won’t come with me to my wedding, to the army, to the delivery room. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you during the hardest moments.”

Meir’s death brought the toll in the recent violence to 24 Israelis and 155 Palestinians killed since 1 October. Israel’s government has already come under pressure over the spate of attacks and Sunday’s killing provoked fresh outrage.

Most of the stabbings have occurred in public places, including checkpoints, junctions and entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City, and they have rarely been fatal. Many of the Palestinian attackers have been young people, including teenagers. A number of them have attempted attacks with kitchen knives in what some analysts have described as virtual suicide missions.