Wednesday Feb. 10, 2010 9:12 PM (EST+7)
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JERUSALEM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - A Palestinian stabbed and killed an Israeli soldier whose jeep had stopped at an intersection in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, the military said.
The stabbing followed what Palestinians said was the wounding a day earlier of a 17-year-old Palestinian by a settler who shot him near Nablus.
The soldier was stabbed in the chest, a military spokesman said, and died later in a hospital.
Israeli motorist Yossi Sigalit said in a television interview that he had witnessed the attack, adding that the jeep then rolled forward and overturned in a ditch.
I saw an Arab walking up to a military vehicle, and striking at the driver through the window, he said.
Sigalit said he hit the assailant with his car, knocking him to the ground. Israeli troops arrested the Palestinian.
Israeli media identified the detainee as a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces.
Palestinian and Israeli officials could not confirm the report. Sigalit said the man had been wearing civilian clothes.
The Israeli military also said it was investigating reports a Palestinian had been wounded on Tuesday when a settler-guard fired into the air to disperse stone-throwers.
There has been concern in Israel over security and the effectiveness of the US-trained Palestinian forces in the West Bank, where Abbas has a limited mandate since losing the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamists in 2007. Hamas spurns the Jewish state.
Security is a key factor in any land-for-peace equation leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Abbas, who has balked at returning to talks with Israel until it halts settlement expansion, has demanded it stop its military incursions in the West Bank, in territory designated by 1993 interim accords as being under Palestinian control.
The soldier killed on Wednesday was Ihab Chattib, a career non-commissioned officer from a predominantly Druse Arab town in northern Israel, the military said.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
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