Israel soldier dies after Palestinian stabbing: police

JERUSALEM - Agence France-Presse

An Israeli soldier died on Wednesday after a Palestinian youth stabbed him on board a bus in the north of the country, police said.
 
"The Israeli soldier who was stabbed this morning by a Palestinian on a bus at the Afula bus station has died of his wounds in hospital," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.
 
Earlier, police had said he was in "critical condition" in hospital after the attack.
 
The 16-year-old Palestinian from Jenin in the northern West Bank was detained by passengers and security forces on the bus, Rosenfeld said.
 
"We consider this incident to be a terrorist attack motived by nationalism," he added.
 
According to police, the Palestinian youth did not have a permit to be inside Israel.
 
They said he boarded the bus on the Nazareth-Afula route and attacked the 20-year-old soldier as it arrived at its destination.
 
Army radio cited the Palestinian as saying he carried out the attack because his uncles were in an Israeli jail.
 
There have been several attacks over the past few weeks with deaths on both sides amid mounting tension and speculation about the outbreak of a third intifada, or uprising.
 
The first Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation ran from 1987 to 1993, and was followed by a second one from late 2000 to 2005 in which rights groups estimated 3,000 Palestinian and 1,000 Israeli civilians and troops died.
 
US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Israel and the Palestinian territories last week in a bid to rescue peace talks that are already faltering after just three months of meetings.