RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank Friday, and the military said the man attacked a solider before he was shot.
The army said the man arrived at the checkpoint near Ramallah city in a stolen vehicle, attacked the soldier that was inspecting his papers and tried to steal his weapon. Another soldier shot the alleged Palestinian assailant. The soldier was lightly wounded.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as Mahdi Biadsa, 29. His body is being held by the Israeli military, which said it was investigating the incident and whether it was a criminal attack or part of a wave of rising violence.
At least 118 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, nearly half of them members of armed militant groups, according to an Associated Press tally. But stone-throwing youths and people uninvolved in violence have also been killed.
Meanwhile, Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets in those areas have killed 21 people.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and Gaza. The Palestinians seek the territories for their hoped-for independent state.
