A 16-year-old Palestinian stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli soldier on a bus in northern Israel on Wednesday in an attack apparently motivated by Israel's jailing of his relatives, police said.
The incident, in the town of Afula, followed an increase in Israeli-Palestinian violence in the nearby occupied West Bank, where 10 Palestinians have been shot dead by troops and three Israelis have been killed since peace talks resumed in July.
Israel's northern police commander, Ronny Attia, said the attacker was from the West Bank town of Jenin, and that he was in custody.
"He stabbed a soldier who was in a bus – very grave knife wounds," Attia said in remarks broadcast on Israel Radio, adding that the attacker said he carried out the attack because his uncles were in prison in Israel.
A witness to the stabbing, who gave her name only as Tal, said on Army Radio that passengers streamed off the bus shouting "terrorist, terrorist," and the Palestinian was caught as he tried to flee.
