Israeli soldier killed in West Bank vehicle attack; Remains of Jordan soldiers from 1967 war returned

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian rammed his vehicle into a group of people near a West Bank settlement on Thursday, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding another, the military said.

The military said the Palestinian was apprehended after the attack near the Ofra settlement. Rescue services said the slain Israeli soldier was 20 years old. The wounded sol- dier was evacuated to hospital for treatment.

Israeli media said the Israelis were standing near a bus stop at the time of the attack.

Palestinians say the bloodshed stems from frustration over decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state.

Rights groups have accused Israel of using excessive force in some of the confrontations.

Meanwhile, Israel said on Thursday it had repatriated the remains of three Jordanian soldiers, 50 years after they perished in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Michal Maayan said the bodies were unearthed by chance by workers in Jerusalem.

“Municipal workers discovered the remains of three Jordanian soldiers near the Sur Baher neighborhood where a Jordanian Army base had been situated,” she told AFP.

They will be transported to Jordan overland to be “buried with dignity” in their homeland, Maayan said.

Jordan held east Jerusalem — where Sur Baher is located — until June 1967, when it joined Syria and Egypt in a war against neighboring Israel.

By the end of the brief conflict, Israel had seized east Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria and the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

Separately, Christians in Jerusalem said Thursday that they are hoping for an “open Jerusalem” ahead of Passover and Easter celebrations in the city.

Palestinian Christians from the West Bank and Gaza receive special permits to enter Jerusalem for Easter, where traditional sites of religious importance are located in the Israeli-occupied east of the city.

But Palestinian Christian Youssef Daher said the sparse allocation of permits can some- times cut across families.

“Many families, in Gaza for example, get them only for some members and are therefore separated for the festival,” said Daher of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Center.

This Easter Sunday falls on April 16, during the Jewish Passover festival which runs from sunset April 10 until the evening of April 17.