Palestinian man shoots dead two colonists, wounds one

Alleged gunman, who is at large, had worked in factory where shooting took place

APalestinian gunman shot dead two Israeli colonists and wounded a third yesterday in an industrial park next to a Jewish colony in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli occupation regime said.

The man had worked in a factory where the shooting took place.

Israel’s national ambulance service said a man and two women were shot in the attack in the Barkan industrial area, where nearly 5,000 Palestinians are employed in Israeliowned businesses.

An Israeli regime spokesman, in a conference call with foreign journalists several hours after the incident, said the man and one of the women had died of their wounds.

The other woman shot in the incident was taken to hospital, where doctors said her injuries were not life-threatening.

The alleged gunman was identified as a 23-year-old Palestinian from a West Bank village and was still at large.

Barkan industrial park is next to the colony of Barkan and was established in the early 1980s.

Most countries consider colonies that Israel has built on land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war as illegal.