2 Palestinians killed after stabbing Israelis in West Bank

A Palestinian attacker was shot dead after stabbing two Israelis in the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the West Bank, the Israeli authorities said on Thursday.

The Palestinian stabbed two Israeli security personnel with a knife in industrial area in Ariel, a Jewish settlement in central West Bank, on Thursday morning, the Israeli army.

The two Israelis were moderately wounded but managed to shoot and kill the attacker, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson.

Shortly after, another attack was staged at Mount Hebron regional council in southern West Bank, in which a Palestinian tried to stab a soldier with a screwdriver and was shot dead, according to the Israeli military. No Israelis were injured in this incident.

These attacks follow a deadly one in east Jerusalem on Wednesday, in which two Israelis and two Palestinian attackers died and another Israeli seriously injured.

Twenty-one Israelis and more than 120 Palestinians, plus a U.S. citizen, have lost their lives since the current wave of violence began in October.

Israeli right-wing leaders blame the Palestinian Authority for incitement of violence for religious motives that were sparked by tensions over the flashpoint holy site of the al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority, however, charges that the violence is the result of nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories, home to more than five million Palestinians, and the dim prospects of establishing a Palestinian state in these territories in accordance with the two-state peace solution. Endit