Israeli troops shot dead an apparent would-be Palestinian suicide bomber at a checkpoint near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Monday, the Israeli army said.An Israeli military spokeswoman said troops ordered a man acting suspiciously at the Hawara checkpoint to stop but shot him when he lowered his hands in an apparent attempt to blow himself up. The spokeswoman said army sappers later detonated three pipe bombs in a controlled explosion at the scene of the shooting. A Palestinian security source in Nablus said the dead individual was a 16-year-old youth from the village of Beit Furik near the city. Other details were not immediately available.
Israel frequently carries out strikes and raids in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip aimed at stopping rocket fire into nearby towns and agricultural communities in southern Israel. Clashes are not as frequent in the West Bank, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction holds sway.