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Settlers arrested in Yitzhar in the West Bank, April 30, 2013. Photo by Hadar Cohen


BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A settler was stabbed to death near Nablus on Tuesday, witnesses said.

Onlookers told Ma'an that a man asked a taxi to drop him off around 60 meters from Zatara checkpoint south of Nablus, in an area where settlers wait to hitch-hike or for transport.

"The Palestinian suspect stabbed an Israeli sitting at a bus stop. He died," Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP, adding that the incident took place near Tapuah junction which lies south of the city of Nablus.

Israeli border police sped to the area and fired towards the attacker, who grabbed his victim's weapon and returned fire but was eventually disarmed and taken into custody, she said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said that the Palestinian man was taken to hospital for treatment.

Following the incident, settlers descended on the area and began attacking Palestinian cars, pelting them with stones, an AFP photographer said.

Israeli forces announced a state of alert in the area and erected flying checkpoints in south Nablus, with locals saying that traffic is at a standstill near Zatara checkpoint.

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A group of Israelis rioted near the Yitzhar settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday, following a terror attack in which local settler Eviatar Borovzky was stabbed to death by a Palestinian.

The demonstrators attempted to block a road close to the Yitzhar settlement and set fields on fire in the Palestinain villages of Burin and Hawara. They also threw stones at a Palestinian school bus that was driving through on Route 60, wounding two girls

Six settlers have been arrested, including two teenaged girls.

Firefighters deployed to the area reported several instances in which settlers tried to prevent them from putting the fires out, but they managed to continue with their operations.

Yitzhar settlers also smashed the window of a mosque in the Palestinian villahe of Urif and tried to set it on fire.

Borovsky is the first Israeli to be killed in the West Bank since September 2011.

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