Palestinian slays Israeli; 3 attackers killed

JERUSALEM — A young Israeli woman was stabbed to death by a Palestinian who was among three assailants to be shot dead after separate attacks on Sunday, Israeli security forces said, with the latest flareup of violence coming ahead of a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The 21-year-old Israeli woman was fatally wounded when a Palestinian attacked her with a knife in the West Bank on Sunday afternoon before being shot and killed by soldiers nearby, the military said.

The attack occurred at the Gush Etzion junction near Jerusalem, the scene of multiple Palestinian attacks over the past two months.

In an earlier attack, the military said a woman pulled out a knife at the entrance to a military base and began approaching civilians.

A local West Bank settler leader, Gershon Mesika, said he veered off the road and struck the woman with his vehicle. A soldier then fired at her and killed her. The army did not say how close the woman had been to carrying out an attack.

Her father, Taha Qatanani, said his 16-year-old daughter went to school in the morning and that he heard about her death two hours later. “She talked about stabbing to her brother the day before, but no one took her seriously,” he said.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, a Palestinian driving a taxi cab tried to run over Israelis east of Jerusalem, police said. After crashing his car, he emerged with a knife and tried to stab people but was shot dead by a bystander before he could harm anyone.