Palestinian teenager killed after 'stabbing Israeli security guard' near settlement

The victim was identified as 17-year-old Hamza Zamareh, from Halhul, according to Palestinian security sources.

The Israeli civilian, who was guarding the entrance to the Karmei Tzur settlement north of Hebron, was lightly wounded in the attack, according to an IDF statement. Another security guard reportedly opened fire on Zamareh and killed him.

Local residents said that Israeli troops arrived at the Zamareh family home shortly after the attack and began interrogating relatives, while young villagers hurled stones at the soldiers.

The Karmei Tzur attack was the fourth deadly incident in the West Bank since Israeli rabbi Itamar Ben Gal was stabbed to death on Monday near the settlement of Ariel, near Salfit. 

In an apparent search for his attacker, Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday evening, sparking clashes that left one Palestinian, named as Khaled Tayeh, dead.

	The grandmother of Ahmed Tayeh at his funeral on Wednesday. Tayeh was killed during an Israeli raid as they searched for the perpetrator of another Israeli settler killing [Getty]

A 16-year-old Palestinian is in a critical condition after being shot in the face, chest, and thigh by Israeli forces during clashes in Kafr Aqeb, north of Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, according to al-Araby al-Jadeed.

In a separate incident, another Palestinian youth was seriously injured in an apparent hit-and-run attack by an Israeli settler on Wednesday evening, al-Araby reported.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli forces shot dead the suspected perpetrator of a fatal January shooting on another settler rabbi, Raziel Shevach, which occurred near the wildcat settlement of Havat Gilad.

In a pre-dawn raid on the village of Yamoun, near Jenin, troops shot dead 22-year-old suspect Ahmad Jarrar, a member of the militant Islamist group Hamas.

The Shin Bet Israeli security agency said that he was armed.

Jarrar was the son of a Hamas figure killed by Israeli forces during the second intifada of the early 2000s.

'Qassam bullet'

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, claimed Jarrar as a member and welcomed the January 9 attack in which Shevach was shot dead in what Israeli media said was a hail of 22 bullets.

"Our heroes in the occupied West Bank wrote a heroic epic that made the Zionists lose sleep and put their security establishment on alert," the al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

It said a "Qassam bullet" was responsible for the murder, though it was unclear if the Hamas leadership was claiming direct responsibility for the attack or whether the cell acted on its own.

Israeli forces had been hunting for the assailants since the murder, with roadblocks and checkpoints set up following the attack.

Two Palestinians were killed during earlier raids which Israeli security services said were launched to find Shevach's killers.

Tensions have risen since US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on December 6.

At least 23 Palestinians have been killed since then, most in clashes with Israeli forces. Two Israelis have been killed in that timeframe.

Israeli settlements are seen as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to peace as they are built on Palestinian land, seen as central to a future Palestinian state.

Israel faced sharp criticism from the administration of former US president Barack Obama over settlement construction, but that has not been the case with Trump's White House.

Agencies contributed to this report