‘Sudanese man shot dead after stabbing Israeli soldier’

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A Sudanese man stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier Sunday before being shot dead in southern Israel, with police investigating whether the attack was carried out in solidarity with Palestinians.

The incident near a bus station in the southern city of Ashkelon saw 32-year-old Kamal Hassan stab the soldier and flee, according to police. Another soldier in the area grabbed the lightly wounded soldier's gun and chased Hassan before shooting him.

A witness told Israeli public radio the soldier shot three times at the Sudanese man, but he continued to run. He then fired three more times, according to the witness.

A wave of violence that erupted in October has claimed the lives of 165 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.

A large number of illegal immigrants have arrived in Israel from Sudan through Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, though the status of the person killed Sunday was not clear.

Official figures show 45,000 illegal immigrants are in Israel, almost all from Eritrea and Sudan. About two-thirds are Eritrean.

In October, an Eritrean migrant worker who was mistaken for an Arab died after he was shot and brutally beaten at a bus station in the southern city of Beersheba.