JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli soldier fatally wounded a Palestinian on Wednesday in a confrontation over the attempted theft of a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, police said.
A soldier shot the man, in his 20s, fearing he might be an armed militant, as police chased after him and another suspect who tried to hotwire a vehicle at a supermarket outside a Jewish settlement bloc near Bethlehem, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
The man later died of his injuries, Samri said.
Violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories has surged since June, in the weeks preceding a Gaza war that began a month later.
Attacks by Palestinians last year claimed the lives of 11 people in Israel and occupied territory, and at least 16 Palestinians, including several assailants, have also been killed.