2 Palestinians held in security guard’s death

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military on Saturday said it has arrested a pair of Palestinian assailants who allegedly shot and killed a security guard at the entrance of a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

The detention followed a manhunt that was launched shortly after the attack late Friday. Israeli soldiers, special forces and border police took part in the detention and seizure of weapons from the two suspects, who it said were seized in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan.

The fresh attack, combined with the death of a Palestinian man elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, could further fuel tensions that have soared over the past two months. A string of Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have left 15 Israelis dead, while at least 27 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in recent weeks.

Israeli forces on Saturday set up checkpoints and were conducting searches for the attackers in the area, the army said. It said it arrested two purported members of the Hamas militant group, but there was no immediate indication that the men were involved in the attack. Hamas praised the killing of the guard but stopped short of claiming responsibility for the shooting.

In a separate incident, Israeli troops shot and killed a 27-yearold Palestinian man in Azoun village near the town of Qalqilya early Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The army said it had opened fire after a group of suspects threw firebombs toward the soldiers.

Tensions have been heightened in recent weeks by Palestinian shooting attacks in Israeli cities, an Israeli military crackdown in the northern West Bank, where some of the attackers came from, and recurring confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli police.

Nasser Nasser / Associated Press A masked Palestinian fires into the air during the funeral of Yahia Edwan, 27, killed by Israeli troops earlier Saturday.