A 16-year-old Palestinian girl tried to carry out a stabbing attack Sunday near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank before being shot, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

"A Palestinian armed with a knife attempted to stab a pedestrian in Hebron," the Israeli military said in a statement.

"Forces on site responded to the imminent danger and fired towards the perpetrator, who has been evacuated to a hospital in Jerusalem for medical treatment."

A spokeswoman for Hadassah hospital said the assailant was being transferred there but could not provide her condition.

Palestinian security sources named her as 16-year-old Hebron resident Lama al-Bakri.

Further details on the incident were not immediately available.
The Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba is located in the southern West Bank on the outskirts of the flashpoint city of Hebron, where much of a surge in violence since October has been focused.

Tensions have been high between several hundred Israeli settlers who live in the heart of Hebron under heavy military guard and some 200,000 Palestinian residents.

Since October 1, almost daily attacks by Palestinians and clashes with Israeli soldiers have killed 116 on the Palestinian side, 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.

Many of the Palestinians killed have been attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during clashes.

Young Palestinians have grown frustrated with Israel's occupation and the complete lack of progress in peace efforts in addition to their own fractured leadership.
Source: AFP