Palestinian killed after stabbing Israeli soldier in West Bank

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man on Monday after he allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli officer at a West Bank checkpoint, officials said.

A Palestinian man approached paramilitary Border Police officers at the Tapuach Junction checkpoint, a major crossroad south of Nablus, while asking for medical assistance, an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement.

"When he got within a close range of the forces, he pulled out a knife and attempted to stab an officer," the spokesperson said, adding that the officer was slightly wounded.

"The forces on site responded immediately, firing towards the attacker," the spokesperson said.

The assailant was critically wounded and died of his wounds on the scene, a spokesperson for the Border Police said in a separate statement.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials said that the Israeli army briefed the Palestinian side on the shooting.

Abdel Halim Ja'afra, an official in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in the city, told Xinhua that rescue teams were informed by the Palestinian side to send an ambulance to pick up the body of the young man.

On Saturday, a 16-year-old teenager was shot dead at an Israeli army roadblock near Nablus after he stabbed an Israeli border police officer.

On Aug. 9, a Palestinian was shot dead near the West Bank city of Ramallah after he stabbed an Israeli soldier at one of the Israeli army roadblocks near the city. Earlier in August, a Palestinian youth was killed at an Israeli army checkpoint also near Ramallah.

Tension in the West Bank has been growing since a July 31 Jewish arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a father and his toddler and seriously wounded the mother and a four-year-old son.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it is preparing a file to be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to prosecute Israel for execution of Palestinians. Endit