Jerusalem, Aug 21 (EFE) the attacker fled.
According to the military spokesperson, the incident is being treated as a “terrorist attack” carried out by a Palestinian, who is being sought after fleeing the scene of the attack.
For its part, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical service said its doctors treated a woman in her forties and a seriously injured man of similar age, who were taken to a nearby hospital.
“An attack was carried out with shots from a vehicle that passed through Route 60, adjacent to the city of Hebron, against civilians who were driving in the area,” said an Army statement, which detailed that “two civilians were injured and the injured woman was pronounced dead later.”
“Israel Defense Forces soldiers are chasing suspects and have set up roadblocks in the area,” the text added.
Shortly after the incident, the Islamist Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, celebrated the attack and, although it did not claim responsibility for it, said it is the natural response to “Zionist colonization projects in Jerusalem and the West Bank.”
A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group described the episode as “a heroic operation that shows the fragility and weakness of the security system” in Israel.
The attack on Monday comes just two days after two Israelis – a 60-year-old man and his 28-year-old son – were killed on Saturday as a result of a shooting attack in the Palestinian town of Huwara, also in the West Bank.
In that incident, the attacker, who the army says is Palestinian, also went on the run and since then Israeli security forces have carried out an intensive search to capture him.
These episodes are part of a prolonged spiral of violence in the area, which is experiencing its bloodiest year since the Second Intifada (2000-2005).
So far this year, 184 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the West Bank or on Israeli territory. Most were attackers or militants who died in gun battles with Israeli troops, but there are also civilians, including 33 minors.
In addition, the area has seen the proliferation of new Palestinian armed groups, which carry out more and more attacks and have left 31 dead on the Israeli side, most of them settlers, five of them minors, and three in uniform. EFE
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