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Photo:
Scene. File. Published by Maan News
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HEBRON (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces detained a Palestinian youth in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday night for allegedly being in possession of a knife.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that a “suspect with a knife” approached an Israeli checkpoint near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of Hebron.

The spokesperson did not clarify whether the Palestinian was attempting to carry out a stabbing attack, but highlighted that he was detained “without the use of live fire.”

Israeli forces have detained scores of Palestinians for allegedly being in possession of knives in the past year following a spate of alleged and actual small-scale knife attacks by Palestinians that surged in the fall of 2015.

Hebron in particular grew as the epicenter of upheaval, with a number of Palestinians having been shot while being detained at military checkpoints in the area.

Rights groups have disputed Israel's version of events in a number of cases, also denouncing what they have termed as a "shoot-to-kill" policy against Palestinians who did not constitute a threat at the time of their death, or who could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner -- amid a backdrop of impunity for Israeli forces who have committed the killings.

Eyewitnesses have also said in a number of cases that Israeli security forces planted knives on slain Palestinians to claim that they were acting in self-defense during a stabbing attack -- most recently in a contested case earlier this month in Hebron.