Palestinian youth stabs Israeli-American right-wing activist in occupied West Bank

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A 17-year-old Palestinian stabbed an Israeli-American right-wing activist, a settler, near the entrance to a mall in the occupied West Bank on Sunday before being shot and wounded at the end of a brief foot chase, officials said.

He appeared regularly on television, but occupation authorities said there was no indication he was targeted for that reason.

The Palestinian youth, Khalil Jabareen, lived in the village of Yatta in the southern West Bank, according to Palestinian security sources.

He was moderately wounded, Israeli official Micky Rosenfeld said.

Surveillance footage shared on news sites and social media showed the assailant approaching the settler near the mall entrance and stabbing him several times.

He is then pursued by civilians and shot nearby.

There is regular friction between Israelis and Palestinians in that area, close to a major illegal Israeli housing bloc. It has been the site of numerous lone-wolf Palestinian resistance operations.

The settler: A vocal defender of Israel

Ari Fuld created a Facebook page called "Israel Defence Page" and was a hardline defender of Israel in his television appearances.

During last year's march by right-wing Israelis through East Jerusalem's Old City to commemorate 50 years since Israel seized control of it in the 1967 War, Fuld said it was a "miraculous day" for Jews.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said on Twitter that "America grieves” for its citizen.

"Ari Fuld was a passionate defender of Israel and an American patriot," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "He was an advocate for Israel".

A wave of knife attacks against Israelis, mostly settlers, broke out in 2015, but they have since become sporadic.

Since then, occupation troops have shot and killed numerous Palestinians in similar cases, many of which under questionable circumstances.

On September 3, a Palestinian allegedly wielding a knife approached an Israeli military checkpoint near the hardline Kiryat Arba illegal housing units in the Hebron area and was shot dead by soldiers, according to Israeli sources.

In previous years, increased Israeli visits to the Aqsa Mosque complex in the occupied Old City — where Israelis claim the Temple Mount is — have led to such tensions.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

While protests and clashes have continued at varying levels along the blockaded Gaza Strip border since March 30, the West Bank has remained relatively calm.

In the Gaza unrest, at least 179 Palestinians have been killed since March 30. One Israeli soldier has been killed in the Gaza border area since then.

Israel accuses Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, of seeking to use the protests to carry out attacks or infiltrations.

Palestinians and rights groups say protesters have been shot while posing little threat.

Israel has waged three wars on Gaza since 2008.