Ramallah in lockdown following shootings

Israeli forces encircled Ramallah in the occupied West Bank yesterday and sent in reinforcements after a gunman shot dead two Israelis at a bus stop in the area, the army said.

“Entrances and exits to the city are all closed. We are conducting searches,” army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists.

He said the military was sending “a few more infantry battalions” to conduct operations in the West Bank.

The Israeli occupation military said the assailant stepped out of his car and fired at the bus stop, wounding several people and then fled the scene. It said forces were searching the area for the attacker.

Also yesterday, police said a Palestinian stabbed two officers in Occupied Jerusalem’s Old City, wounding them lightly.

The officers opened fire on the attacker and he was killed.

Earlier this week another shooting occurred of a pregnant Israeli woman resulting in the death of her baby. Two Palestinians were shot dead following the incident.

Israel occupied the West Bank and Jerusalem during the 1967 War in a move never recognised by the international community.