Soldier killed in raid — 1st combat fatality in 2020
JERUSALEM — A 21yearold Israeli soldier was killed early Tuesday when he was struck in the head by a heavy rock as his unit was completing a nighttime arrest mission in a Palestinian village near Jenin, in the northern West Bank, the army said.
It was the first combat fatality for the Israeli military this year, and it came as the region was bracing for a possible uptick in violence in response to an Israeli push to annex land in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinians have long counted on for a future state.
Later in the day, a Palestinian man who attempted a stabbing attack at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem was shot and wounded, the Israeli police said.
The overnight killing of the soldier, Staff Sgt. Amit Ben Ygal of the city of Ramat Gan, occurred during what the army described as a routine operation that resulted in the arrest of four Palestinians in Yaabed, west of Jenin, including some suspected of throwing stones at passing Israeli motorists. The soldier was hit by a rock thrown from a house on the outskirts of the village, the army said.
He was wearing a helmet, but it did not save him.
A hunt was under way for his killer on Tuesday, and the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Israeli forces were raiding homes in Yaabed and had arrested seven additional people by around noon.
An Israeli Army spokesman,
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said, “We have a good assessment of who it is, and it’s just a matter of time before they will be apprehended.”
The mayor of Yaabed, Saed Zaid Kilani, said later that Israeli forces had arrested an entire family living in the home from which it was believed the rock had been thrown at Ben Ygal.
Conricus described Yaabed as “a known hot spot of terrorists and sympathizers and supporters of terrorist activity — and lots of stone throwing.”
Palestinian officials said militants representing Fatah, which controls the West Bank, and rival factions claimed many supporters in the area.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said that he wants to annex West Bank land, a longheld dream of the Israeli right, as soon as July. That will be among the subjects covered during a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday.