Israeli soldier, 19, stabbed to death

An Israeli soldier was killed in a suspected terrorist attack in the southern city of Arad and, in a separate incident, a Palestinian man was killed by an Israeli near Hebron, the Israel Police said.

An unidentified individual stabbed Ron Yitzhak Kukia, 19, Thursday night while Kukia was waiting for a bus, killing the Tel Aviv-born infantry soldier within minutes from blood loss. Police and the Israel Security Service are searching for the perpetrators, whom they suspect are Palestinian, Ynet reported.

Also on Thursday, a resident of the Israeli settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron shot dead a Palestinian while escorting a school trip outside a nearby Palestinian village. The shooter and other parents who escorted the teenage children said villagers threw stones and rocks at them, forcing them to fire to protect the children.

But the man killed from the shots, Mahmoud Ahmad Zaal Odeh, was a 48-year-old farmer working in his field nearby the scene of the incident, according to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency.

Police detained the shooter and he is suspected of causing death through negligence, Ynet reported.

Several of the parents escorting the trip were wounded from stones but the children were kept safe after an armed escorting father led them to a cave as the other parents confronted the stone throwers. Israel Defence Forces rushed to the scene and extracted the Israelis while other forces engaged the stone throwers and dispersed the riot.