JERUSALEM: A Palestinian stabbed and killed an Israeli man on Monday in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials said.
The incident occurred in Ariel, one of the largest Israeli settlements in the territory. An army officer who spotted the assailant hit him with his vehicle, but the Palestinian escaped and troops launched a search, the military said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli had died of his wounds, making the announcement at a weekly meeting of legislators from his right-wing Likud party.
Tensions have risen in the West Bank since US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Dec. 6, breaking with decades of US policy that the city’s status must be decided in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in a 1967 war, and Palestinians want it for the capital of a future state. Israel considers all of Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.
Separately, Israel on Sunday said it plans to legalize an isolated West Bank outpost in response to the murder of one of its residents in a shooting attack last month.
Netanyahu told his weekly Cabinet meeting that his government will legalize Havat Gilad to “allow the continuing of normal life there.”
“Whoever thought that through the reprehensible murder of a resident of Havat Gilad, a father of six, that our spirit can be broken and we can be weakened, is making a bitter mistake,” Netanyahu said.