Add Category
Updated
An Israeli man has been stabbed to death at a bus stop near a West Bank settlement.
- The victim was a 29-year-old man standing near a bus stop on a busy road
- Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says security forces are "currently chasing the murderers"
- The attack comes after Israel announced plans to legalise an isolated West Bank outpost
The attack happened near the entrance to the Ariel settlement.
CCTV video showed the attacker crossing the road to stab his victim, who then runs away out of view.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man died from his injuries shortly after.
Israel's military said an army officer chased the assailant, hitting him with his vehicle, but the attacker managed to get away.
Israeli media identified the stabbing victim as 29-year-old father of four Itamar Ben Gal.
The attack came after the Israeli Government announcing plans to legalise an isolated outpost in the West Bank.
It was reported that the assailant held Israeli citizenship, but the military and Shin Bet internal security service would not confirm his identity.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences and said security forces are "currently chasing the murderers".
Last month, an Israeli was killed in a drive-by shooting near a settlement outpost in the West Bank.
Palestinians seek the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 war, as part of a future state.
Most of the international community views Israeli settlements there as illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Israel says the fate of settlements must be resolved through negotiations.
There has been a spike in violence since President Donald Trump's December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The move sparked outrage across the Muslim world, where it was seen as the US taking Israel's side on the most contentious issue of the decades-old conflict.
Palestinian demonstrators have clashed with Israeli troops in the West Bank and along the Gaza-Israeli border, and 19 Palestinians have been killed in the violence since Mr Trump's announcement.
Since mid-December, eight Palestinian civilians, including four children, have been killed by Israeli Security Forces during protests and clashes in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Israel this week announced plans to legalise Havat Gilad, an isolated West Bank outpost, in response to the shooting death of one of its residents last month.
Mr Netanyahu said the move would "allow the continuing of normal life there".
Rabbi Raziel Shevah, 35, was shot dead from a passing vehicle as he drove near his home in the unauthorised settlement outpost near the Palestinian city of Nablus.
AP/ABC
Topics: crime, world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, israel
First posted