A 13-year-old Israeli girl has been stabbed to death as she slept in her bedroom in the West Bank by a Palestinian man who was subsequently shot dead.
The victim was named by Israeli medics as Hallel Yaffa Ariel. She died shortly after sustaining wounds to her upper torso.
According to early reports, Israeli civilian security officers arrived at her house in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to the Palestinian city of Hebron, shortly after the attack and broke down the door.
One officer was stabbed and seriously injured before another shot the perpetrator dead. Palestinian officials named the assailant as Mohammad Tra’ayra, 19, from the nearby village of Bani Na’im.
Malachi Levinger, chair of Kiryat Arba’s council, told Army Radio that the perpetrator had climbed over the settlement’s security fence.
The incident follows dozens of attacks by Palestinians over the past nine months, which have killed 33 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed, the majority identified by Israel as attackers or would-be attackers.
The spate of violent incidents appeared to have abated in recent weeks, though Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis this month in Tel Aviv’s busy Sarona market.
In Jerusalem, tensions have risen at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount site holy to Jews and Muslims, with Palestinians throwing rocks, one of which lightly injured a 73-year-old Israeli woman.
The violence started after police broke with the practice of recent years by allowing in non-Muslim visitors including tourists during Ramadan, after a relatively calm first 10 days of the holy month. Police have reimposed the visitor ban until Ramadan ends next week.
In separate incidents in the West Bank, five people were killed and at least 16 injured in two overnight intra-Palestinian shootings. Palestinian police said that in one of the incidents a gunman attacked the home of a police officer in the city of Nablus. When other officers arrived to investigate, they came under fire and two were killed.
In the other incident, three Palestinians were killed when a dispute between extended families over a wedding hall in the village of Yaabad spiralled into a shootout.
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