Gunman kills 3 Israelis in colony attack
ATTACKER SHOT DEAD AT ENTRANCE OF COLONY; INCIDENT COMES NEARLY TWO YEARS AFTER A WAVE OF UNREST
Attacker shot dead at the entrance to the West Bank site high in the hills close to the Green Line |
APalestinian opened fire at Israeli security personnel at the entrance to a West Bank colony yesterday, killing three and wounding another before being shot dead, police said.
The attack, which came as US envoy Jason Greenblatt was in occupied Jerusalem for talks on relaunching the moribund Middle East peace process, drew condemnation from Israeli officials who demanded action from the Palestinian leadership.
“A terrorist who arrived at the rear gate of Har Adar along with Palestinian labourers entering the colony ... pulled out a weapon and opened fire at the force at the site,” police said.
“Three Israelis were killed in the attack, another was wounded and the terrorist was neutralised.”
Police later said the Palestinian had died of his wounds.
An AFP correspondent saw a heavy police presence around Har Adar, a well-to-do colony northwest of occupied Jerusalem high in the hills close to the Green Line that separates the occupied West Bank from Israel.
“When I arrived, I saw three people dead, and the terrorist dead, and they took care of the people who died,” paramedic Moiti Fried told AFP.
The shooter was identified by police as a 37-year-old man from Beit Surik, a Palestinian village near Har Adar, who carried a work permit for the colony.
As he approached the checkpoint at the entrance, he aroused the suspicion of security forces, who ordered him to halt, police said.
He then pulled out a pistol and opened fire on border police and civilian security guards, before being shot.
Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service said the shooter was a father of four with no previous “security background”.
The wounded Israeli was admitted to Hadassah hospital in occupied Jerusalem in serious condition, the hospital said.
Police commissioner Roni Alsheich said the evidence suggested that the gunman had intended to penetrate the colony and shoot the residents inside.
“As we see time and again, the threats are moving to the home front. This time they chose a town that’s on the seam,” he said, referring to the colony’s proximity to the Green Line.
“The quick reaction of the security forces” who identified and shot the gunman “prevented the terrorist from entering the colony,” he told reporters in Har Adar.
The latest attack comes nearly two years after a wave of unrest broke out.
The violence had greatly subsided in recent months but Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman warned in a briefing to the cabinet earlier this month that the risk of new attacks was ever present.
“Despite the relative calm, the security reality in the West Bank is fragile,” he said.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said the Palestinian leadership needed to take action against such attacks or there would be no point in following up on the US initiative to relaunch peace talks. “The terrible attack at Har Adar is the Palestinian reception for US envoy Jason Greenblatt,” she said.
“The American efforts must focus first of all on ending the murderous Palestinian terror.”
Hotovely renewed the Israeli government’s call for the Palestinian Authority to stop paying allowances to the families of those who lost their lives carrying out attacks.