A Palestinian also suffered minor injuries for reasons unknown, rescue service Magen David Adom said on Saturday night. The attacker was shot dead after the crime by a guard near the city of Hebron, the Israeli army said. The army searches the area for other suspects.
“Terror will not defeat us,” Prime Minister Jair Lapid said. “We will continue with a heavy hand.” According to media reports, politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who belongs to the far-right spectrum, claims that the shots were aimed at his house. In the Gaza Strip, members of Islamist Hamas celebrated the attack by firing rifles into the air.
The situation in the occupied West Bank has been extremely tense for months. Violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians has broken out repeatedly in Israeli-occupied territory.
A wave of terror has killed 18 people in Israel since March. Several Israeli soldiers and an Israeli guard were also killed in the West Bank that year. Since the wave of terror in the spring, the Israeli army has been carrying out more and more attacks in the West Bank. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed this year in connection with military operations, clashes or their own attacks, according to the health ministry. There are also increasing reports of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, Israeli activists or soldiers.
Israel’s settlement policy is highly controversial internationally. Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. Today, more than 600,000 Jewish settlers live there. The Palestinians want the areas for an independent state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.
(SDA)