Two terror attacks thwarted in the West Bank

Israeli troops have thwarted two terror attacks in the West Bank, killing a Palestinian who tried to ram his car into Israeli soldiers and wounding a second assailant who opened fire elsewhere in the territory, the military said.

Another Palestinian was killed in clashes with troops in the West Bank flashpoint city of Hebron.

The bloodshed is the latest in almost three months of near-daily Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis and other Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The military said troops shot and killed a Palestinian man who attempted to run his car into Israeli security forces near Hebron. The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the assailant as Issa Hroub, 55, from the nearby village of Deir Samet.

There were no Israeli injuries and the military did not specify how close the driver came to the troops.

Earlier in the day, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at soldiers at a West Bank border crossing before he was wounded and fled the scene, according to the Israeli defence ministry.

There were no Israelis injured in the attack at the Gilboa crossing near Jenin, according to ministry spokeswoman Arielle Heffez. She said Israeli forces were searching for the suspect who fled the scene in a van.

Also in Hebron, 22-year-old Palestinian Oday Ersheid died in clashes between stone-hurling youths and Israeli soldiers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. He was the brother of high school student Dania Ersheid, who was shot dead by Israeli border police in late October in Hebron.

Meanwhile, security forces arrested a Palestinian suspected of ramming his vehicle into a group of soldiers the previous day near the settlement of Beit Arieh. The military identified the suspect as Mahmad Abd El Halim Abd El Hamid Salam.

The Shin Bet intelligence agency said Salam is a member of Hamas from the West Bank village of Luban and that he admitted carrying out the attack.

Since mid-September, Palestinians have killed 19 Israelis. At least 111 Palestinians have died by Israeli fire, 75 of them said by Israel to be attackers while the others died in clashes with security forces.

Israel blames incitement by political and religious leaders for the violence. Palestinians say the attacks stem from despair at Israel’s occupation.