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Photo:
Soldiers near the settlement of Beit Horon, January 2016. Credit: Gil Cohen-Magen Published by Haaretz
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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Two Palestinian females were arrested, one of whom was shot and injured by Israeli forces, after the two allegedly attempted to stab a soldier Thursday evening at a security checkpoint in the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that “assailants attempted to stab soldiers stationed at a security crossing adjacent to route 443. Responding to the imminent danger, forces fired towards one of the attackers and she is now receiving medical care."

She was taken to Israel's Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem where she was in moderate-to-serious condition, according to Israeli media.

The second assailant reportedly attempted to escape at the scene, but was later apprehended without being fired on and taken in for questioning by Israel's security agency.

According to the Israeli news outlet The Jeruslam Post, the two were both 14 years old.

There were no injuries on the Israeli side.

The incident comes a day after Israeli forces shot and killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her 16-year-old brother after they allegedly attempted to carry out a stab attack on border police at Qalandiya military checkpoint near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Witnesses at the scene said the two siblings posed no threat at the time the Israeli officer killed them.

Their deaths come in the wake of mass criticism towards what has been termed Israel’s policy of “extrajudicial executions” towards Palestinians, which most recently came under spotlight after an Israeli soldier was caught on film shooting a prone Palestinian through the head from point blank range.

Popular Palestinian support for stab attacks -- widely explained by Palestinian and international leadership as a natural response to the effects of the ongoing Israeli military occupation -- has hovered below fifty percent for the past two months, according to polls, coinciding with a relative drop in the frequency of such attacks that initially surged in October.

A reduction in stab attacks has been attributed to security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, as well as to general public sentiments that the attacks are not effective in resistance against the occupation, according to polls.
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Israeli Troops Shoot Palestinian Woman Who Tries to Stab Them, Arrest Another

Two women attempt to stab soldiers at a checkpoint near the village of Beit Uhr Eh Tahta, near Highway 443, IDF says.

by Haaretz

Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian woman who tried to stab them and arrested another, at the Bell Checkpoint near Beit Ur al-Tahta, located by Highway 443 in the West Bank.

There were no Israeli casualties in the incident.

An initial investigation showed that the two Palestinian women approached the checkpoint, located near the Palestinian village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, north of the settlement of Beit Horon, carrying a knife, syringe and a suicide note.

The soldiers at the checkpoint became suspicious after the two asked them for water. Then, according to the army, one of the two women pulled out a knife and tried to stab the soldiers. This is when one of the Palestinians was shot.

The other Palestinian then tried to flee the scene, the army said, but she was detained after she was spotted hiding in nearby bushes by a military observation post.

The Palestinian woman who was shot received first aid at the scene and was later taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem for further treatment.

On Wednesday, a Palestinian woman and her younger brother were shot dead by Israeli security forces at the Qalandiyah checkpoint in the West Bank. Police said that the two were carrying knives and that before being shot, they were ordered to stop several times but continued to approach the troops stationed at a drive-through checkpoint not intended for pedestrians.