Hunt is on after Israelis shot dead

ARMY: ‘HOMEMADE GUN USED IN TERRORIST ATTACK’

Condition of wounded woman has stabilised.

APalestinian shot dead two Israelis and wounded another at a West Bank settlement’s industrial zone yesterday as security forces hunted the assailant who also worked at the site, the Israeli army said.

Since the attack was allegedly carried out by a Palestinian employed at the Barkan industrial zone, questions were raised over whether he knew the victims and over the motivation behind the shooting.

Army spokesperson Jonathan Conricus called it a “terrorist attack”.

The 23-year-old Palestinian used a homemade gun, he said.

Security forces were hunting the perpetrator, Conricus said.

Surveillance footage spread online appeared to show the Palestinian fleeing the site with a gun.

Magen David Adom emergency medical services said their medics had entered a building at Barkan where they found a man and woman, both without a pulse, and pronounced them dead.

“Later we found another injured woman hiding under a table with gunshot wounds in her upper body,” said paramedic Tomer Fine, who was the first responder at the site.

The woman, 54, was taken to hospital, where her condition was stabilised.

Speaking at Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the shooting “a severe terror attack”.

He was certain the perpetrator would be brought to justice.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group called the attack a “natural response” to Israeli crimes in Gaza, Jerusalem and Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin village in the West Bank.

Some Israeli media reported the Palestinian suspect had been recently fired from his job at the site, raising speculation the attack may have been motivated by a personal vendetta.

The attack took place at the Barkan depot of the Alon Group, which manufactures recycling and environmental products, according to Eran Bodankin, a manager at the site.

Speaking with Channel 10 television, Bodankin said the suspect had entered the offices to fix an electrical problem, only to open fire at a secretary and senior manager sitting nearby.

A wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis broke out in 2015, but they have since become sporadic.

Israel settlements are considered illegal under international law and major stumbling blocks to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state. –