In recent months there has been a sharp escalation in violence between Palestinian militants, Israeli security forces and radical Jewish settlers. Monday’s episode came with Israeli troops already on alert to search for the gunman who killed two Israelis on Saturday in the northern West Bank.
The explosive mix of armed Palestinians shooting at Israelis in the West Bank and the often deadly raids by Israeli troops almost nightly to stop militants has fueled the worst fighting between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades.
Reprisals against Palestinians by fanatical Jewish settlers have also aggravated the situation. On Sunday night, Jewish settlers hurled rocks and firebombs at a Palestinian home south of Nablus, near where Saturday’s deadly attack took place, local authorities said. The attack caused damage but no casualties.
Israeli security forces said a suspected Palestinian militant had opened fire on Route 60, the main highway connecting the north and south of the territory, near the major city of Hebron. The army said the shooting, apparently from another vehicle, killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man when the two were driving in the area. A six-year-old girl who was riding in the vehicle was uninjured. The Israeli rescue service reported that the two victims were in quarantine. The man was semi-conscious and was taken to the hospital.
Images from the scene showed a dozen bullet holes in the victims’ car. The gunman fled the scene, prompting security forces to begin their second search operation in three days.
The armed group Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad hailed the attack as a response to increasing Israeli settlement activity in the region, although they stopped short of claiming responsibility.
The deadly shooting came just days after another Palestinian attack killed an Israeli father and son washing their car in the northern Palestinian town of Hawara, a killing that put the West Bank on edge.
Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the beginning of this year, according to a count by The Associated Press. Israel said most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But young people who threw stones in protest of the incursions and people who did not participate in the confrontations have also died.
Some 30 people have been killed by Palestinian attacks on Israelis in that period.
Israel claims the raids are intended to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. Palestinians say the operations undermine their security forces, inspire more armed struggle and reassert Israeli control over land they claim to form a state. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
