For the second day running a Palestinian with a knife has attacked an Israeli woman in a West Bank settlement, marking a new departure in almost four months of deadly violence.
In the incident on Monday, the attacker apparently entered the Tekoa settlement and stabbed the 30-year-old settler, the Israeli military said, before being shot by the settlement’s head of security.
The latest attack came as Dafna Meir, a nurse and mother of six, was buried on Monday. She was stabbed to death on Sunday outside her house in Otniel in the south Hebron hills in an attack witnessed by one of her children.
Shoham Ruvio, a spokeswoman for Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek hospital, said the woman stabbed in Tekoa was five months pregnant. She said she was moderately wounded after being stabbed in the upper body and that there was no damage caused to the foetus. Ruvio identified the woman as Michal Froman, the daughter-in-law of a late settler rabbi known to have promoted coexistence between Arabs and Jews. The Israeli military announced on Monday that it was banning several thousand Palestinian workers from the entering the Gush Etzion bloc of Israeli settlements where many are employed. “In light of situation assessments and following recent terror attacks … Palestinian workers have been instructed to leave [Gush Etzion] communities,” an army statement said.
Analysts said increased tensions could prompt settlers, who have a strong voice in Israel’s rightwing government, to urge policymakers to impose more travel and employment restrictions on Palestinians. If that happens, it could further increase tensions.
The latest incidents have added to the growing sense of crisis over the continuing violence that has seen almost daily attacks and which has claimed the lives of about 180 people on both sides, including 100 Palestinians Israel says were killed during attacks and attempted attacks.
No comments:
Post a Comment