Israeli settler stabbed to death in illegal West Bank settlement

An Israeli settler was stabbed to death in the illegal West Bank settlement of Ariel on Monday. 

The man succumbed to his wounds and died in hospital after medics and Israeli military doctors attempted to treat him at the scene of the incident. 

A spokesperson for the Israeli army confirmed the death and said that a "terrorist came to the hitchhiking stop at the entrance to Ariel and stabbed a civilian."

"An IDF officer that identified the assailant pursued him with his vehicle and hit him. The assailant fled. IDF forces are now scanning the perimeter."

Following the stabbing, the Israeli army raided the nearby village of Hares to search for the attacker. The assailant has still not been captured by the Israeli army.  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and sent his condolences to the family. 

"We will exact our judgment. These are very hard moments," said Netanyahu.

"The people come together at times like these. I put our faith in the security forces, who are doing an excellent job."

Hamas celebrated the attack and called the stabbing of the Israeli settler a "continuation to the resistance to Trump's Jerusalem declaration."

The militant group also urged the Palestinian authority to halt "all coordination with Israel on security matters."

On Sunday, Netanyahu said ministers would grant formal authorisation on Sunday to a rogue West Bank settlement in response to the murder last month of a rabbi who lived there.

The announcement came amid heightened tensions after Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager during an arrest raid to capture the rabbi's killers in the village of Burqin in the occupied West Bank. 

Some 50 families live in the illegal outpost. Palestinian officials condemned the move.

"Netanyahu is trying to make facts on the ground. All settlements in the West Bank, including in Jerusalem, are illegal," said Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee. 

Israeli settlements are seen as illegal under international law and major obstacles to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state, but Israel differentiates between settlements it has approved and those it has not.

Those without approval are referred to as outposts and tend to be populated by hardline religious nationalists who see the entire West Bank as part of Israel.

The official cabinet agenda says ministers will hear a motion to designate the 15-year-old outpost as a "new community" which will have the necessary building permits and a state budget