Fresh Israeli-Palestinian violence hits West Bank

Violence flared up Friday throughout the West Bank with at least six Palestinians wounded in clashes with Israeli forces and one Israeli injured in a Palestinian stabbing attack, officials said.

A Palestinian man stabbed a 40-year-old Israeli man outside a supermarket in the Jewish settlement of Sha'ar Binyamin, between Ramallah and Jerusalem, a military spokesperson said in a statement.

"The assailant fled the scene... Israeli forces are currently searching the area," said the statement.

A spokesperson with the Israeli rescue service said the Israeli was seriously injured.

About half an hour earlier, Israeli troops shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian woman in the town of Halhul, near Hebron.

A military spokeswoman told Xinhua that the woman was attempting to run over soldiers.

An Israeli ambulance took her for hospital care in Jerusalem, the spokeswoman added.

Palestinian media later reported that the woman succumbed to her wounds in hospital.

She was identified as a 70-year-old widow, whose husband was killed by Israeli forces in the 1980s' "First Intifada."

In Hebron, Israeli troops injured at least five Palestinian amidst clashes in the flashpoint city, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

The clashes broke out as Palestinian worshipers left the Wasaya al-Rasoul Mosque, which was surrounded by Israeli forces, after the Friday prayers.

Near Bethlehem, Qalqilya and Nablus, protesters marched towards Israeli checkpoints, throwing rocks towards the soldiers, who used live bullets, rubber-coated bullets and tear gas to disperse them, local media and a military spokesperson said.

On Thursday evening, Israeli troops shot dead a 25-year-old Palestinian in a major crossroad of the Gush Etzion Jewish settlement.

A military statement said the suspect held a knife and was attempting to stab a soldier at a crowded bus stop.

The incidents were the latest in a deadly six-week wave violence in the West Bank and Israel, which has seen the death of 11 Israelis and at least 74 Palestinians.

As Hebron became a major center of violence in the past two weeks, Israel has been imposing harsher restrictions on the movement of the Palestinian residents, Israeli human rights watchdog B'tselem said.

The measures include a closure on the neighborhood of Tel Rumeidah, home to 50 Palestinian families, where residents are allowed to enter only after security checks, and locals who are not listed as residents in the military's records are denied access, the watchdog said on Friday. Endit