WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A 13-year-old Israeli girl fatally stabbed in her bedroom in the occupied West Bank on Thursday was a U.S. citizen, the State Department said.
The girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, was attacked after an assailant climbed a security fence and entered a home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba.
“We have now confirmed that she is a U.S. citizen,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing.
(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Alan Crosby)
On Wednesday night, a teacher at a Jewish school in the southern French city of Marseille was stabbed by three people who yelled anti-Semitic and pro-ISIS obscenities. The teacher survived the attack.
Reuters reports that the three attackers were on two scooters and approached the man in the street. One of them wore an Islamic State t-shirt while another showed pictures of Mohamed Merah – a man who killed 7 people in France in 2012 before being shot by police – on his phone to the victim. They stabbed the teacher three times in the arm and leg.
“The three people insulted, threatened and then stabbed their victim in the arm and leg. They were interrupted by the arrival of a car and fled,” Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin told Reuters.
BBC News reports that police are looking for the attackers.
Since the attacks in Paris last Friday that led to the deaths of 129 people, France has been in a state of emergency.