Israeli Army Puts Palestinian Village on Lockdown After Woman Soldier Stabbed
Beit Fajjar residents are barred from leaving or entering the village after two attackers are shot and killed following an attack near the settlement of Ariel.
The Israel Defense Forces has imposed a full lockdown on the West Bank village of Beit Fajjar, the hometown of two Palestinians shot and killed earlier on Thursday after they stabbed and wounded a woman soldier after she got off a bus near the settlement of Ariel.
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Magen David Adom paramedics treated the soldier for a stab wound to the upper body and evacuated her to Beilinson Hospital, Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva in moderate-to-serious condition.
The slain assailants, were identified as Ali Thawabta, 19, and Ali Takatka, 20 from the village of Beit Fajjar. The IDF responded by surrounding the village and putting it on lockdown denying entry or exit accept for emergency cases.
The attackers had ambushed the soldier from a hitchhiking post at the Ariel junction, following her after she got off a bus there. After they stabbed and wounded her, soldiers of the Golani Brigade deployed at the site on security detail moved in and shot to death both men.
During a five month upsurge in Israeli, Palestinian violence, five young people from Beit Fajjar have died, as well as 13 youngsters from the Bethlehem district.
Palestinian attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens during this period, while Israeli forces have killed at least 187 Palestinians, 126 of whom were assailants, security officials say.
On Monday, four Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded in two separate attacks. The incidents, a shooting and car-ramming, took place only minutes apart and both occurred near the settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron.