3 wounded in West Bank knife attack: army

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July 26, 2018 9:17 PM

Three Israelis were wounded Thursday in a knife attack in a West Bank settlement close to Ramallah, the Israeli army said.

"A terrorist infiltrated into (the Adam settlement) and stabbed three civilians," the army said in a statement.

"The terrorist was shot and killed," it added.

In a previous statement, the army had said all three were "seriously" wounded.

According to emergency services, two seriously injured Israelis were evacuated to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

The third, slightly wounded in the leg, was evacuated to another hospital.

Hadassah Hospital said the two wounded had been admitted to intensive care. A 31-year-old was in critical condition, while a 58-year-old patient was not in danger, it said.

Israeli soldiers headed to the scene after the attack to search the area.

Lone Palestinian attackers have carried out multiple deadly stabbings and car-rammings against Israelis in recent years.

The last stabbing attack in a West Bank settlement was in April 2018 when a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli with a screwdriver near a petrol station in an industrial area connected to the Maale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem.

Thursday's attack comes amid recurrent violence between the Israeli army and Palestinian groups in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, promised revenge after Israeli strikes on the coastal enclave killed three of its members.

Israel said the artillery fire late Wednesday was in retaliation for shots fired at troops along the border that injured one soldier.

"The enemy shall pay a high price in blood for the crime which it commits daily against the rights of our people and our fighters," said the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

The flare-up came five days after the United Nations and Egypt brokered a deal to halt a July 20 surge in violence that claimed the lives of four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier -- the first killed in the area since the last war in Gaza in 2014.

On Tuesday, Israel partially reopened its only goods crossing with the Gaza Strip, after a two-week closure prompted by border tensions and incendiary kites had sparked fears of a severe fuel shortage in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Tensions along the Gaza border increased in late March when Palestinians launched a mass protest movement.

At least 149 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli fire since March 30.

Israel says its blockade is necessary to keep Hamas from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes.

But UN officials and rights groups have repeatedly called for the blockade to be lifted, citing worsening humanitarian conditions in the enclave, home to two million people.

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