Palestinian stabs Israeli woman, attacker shot

KFAR SABA, Israel: A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli woman on a high street in the centre of the country on Tuesday before he was shot and wounded, police said.

Police said in a statement that both had suffered "moderate" injuries. They said the 62-year-old woman was attacked on the main street of Kfar Saba, a generally quiet, prosperous city northeast of Tel Aviv.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that the assailant was a 19-year-old from the West Bank, who was shot by a passing civilian. "The terrorist was shot and taken to hospital," Rosenfeld said.

Many Israelis, most of whom have performed compulsory military service, carry licenced firearms. The attack came as Israel observed its annual day of remembrance for soldiers who died in service and civilians killed in militant attacks.

The 24-hour commemoration ends at sunset, when Independence Day begins to mark 72 years since Israel’s declaration of statehood. The proclamation was made on May 14, 1948 but is marked in Israel according to the lunar Hebrew calendar.

Palestinians mark the anniversary as Al-Nakba, or the "catastrophe". During the creation of the Jewish State, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled in the fighting and millions of their descendants now scattered around the world demand the right to return to their historic homes.

A series of so-called lone wolf attacks broke out in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and inside Israel in late 2015. Dozens of individual Palestinians, often not linked to political movements but angered by Israel’s ongoing military occupation, attacked soldiers and Israeli civilians. The situation lasted for several months but has since calmed, though sporadic attacks continue.