The site where an Israeli soldier was stabbed and his Palestinian assailant shot dead, Hebron, Oct. 29, 2015. Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit.

An Israeli soldier was stabbed in the head while confronting Palestinian demonstrators near Hebron on Thursday, amid clashes that have been ongoing for days. The IDF said the soldier was lightly wounded.

“He ran up behind me. I knocked him with my gun and he backed off. Then he lunged at me again, and I cocked my weapon before an [Israeli] border policeman shot him,” the soldier recalled, according to Israeli reports.

The Israel Police released a statement saying the soldier chased the assailant through the crowd of Palestinian demonstrators before a Border Policeman shot and killed him.

The incident was one of two knifing attacks the IDF said it foiled in Hebron on Thursday, the other taking place near the heavily-guarded Jewish community in the middle of the city.

The soldier who was stabbed had only recently begun his service in the Kfir Brigade, part of the army’s infantry branch. Kfir operates predominantly in the West Bank, where the IDF has been confronting aggressive Palestinian demonstrators and a surge of random stabbing attacks amid a wave of violence that began in mid-September.