TVC E. A Palestinian assailant was shot dead on Friday (February 26) after attempting to stab an Israeli soldier at a security crossing near the West Bank settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, the army said.
No Israeli was wounded in the incident, the army added.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Mahmoud Shaalan was a 17-year-old Palestinian from Deir Daboun village north of Ramallah, who carried an American passport.
Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings have killed 28 Israelis and a U.S. citizen since October. Israeli security forces have killed at least 169 Palestinians, 111 of whom Israel says were assailants, while most others were shot dead during violent anti-Israeli protests.
The bloodshed has been fuelled by various factors, including a dispute over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory.
Palestinian leaders have said that with no breakthrough on the horizon, desperate youngsters see no future ahead. Israel says young Palestinians are being incited to violence by their leaders and by Islamist groups calling for Israel’s destruction.
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