Israeli soldier stabbed to death in "terror attack": police

JERUSALEM, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli soldier was stabbed to death in southern Israel on Thursday night in an apparent "terror attack," the police said on Friday.

A military statement identified the victim as Ron Yitzhak Kukia, a 19-year-old soldier from Tel Aviv who served in the "Nahal Brigade," an infantry brigade whose main base is located outside the southern city of Arad.

Kukia was waiting at a bus station in Arad near a shopping mall when two attackers stabbed him and then fled the scene.

The security forces launched a manhunt, which was still ongoing on Friday at noon.

"The main direction of the investigation is that it is most probably a terrorist attack," said Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman.

The murder came amid growing tensions between the Palestinians and the Israelis, after a Palestinian villager was shot and killed by a settler in the West Bank earlier on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Israel bombed the Gaza Strip six times after Gaza militants fired mortars at Israeli soldiers at the separation fence.

At least 300 Palestinians and about 50 Israelis as well as five foreign nationals have been killed in a violent wave in the West Bank and Israel since September 2015.

Israel accuses the Palestinian National Authority of "inciting" the unrest. The Palestinians say it is the result of 50 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, home to more than 5 million Palestinians. Enditem