Shooting near West Bank settlement kills 2 Israelis
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian gunman got out of a car and opened fire at a bus stop outside a West Bank settlement on Thursday, killing two Israeli soldiers before speeding away, the Israeli military said.
The military said the assailant also wounded two other people, including another soldier who was critically wounded. It said troops were searching the area for the attacker and that it was sending reinforcements.
Hours later, the army said it shot and killed a Palestinian man who attempted to ram his car into soldiers on a West Bank road. One soldier was lightly hurt. And in Jerusalem’s Old City, Israeli police said they killed a Palestinian assailant who stabbed two officers.
Thursday’s bloodshed extended a violent week that began with a shooting outside a West Bank settlement on Sunday, resulting in the death of a baby who was delivered prematurely following the weekend attack, and continued with the killing of two Palestinians wanted in a pair of earlier attacks on Israelis in the West Bank.
While the West Bank experiences occasional deadly violence, often between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters, most of the Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed in recent months has been concentrated in the Gaza Strip, where some 175 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in border protests.
Thursday’s shooting occurred at a location about a 10-minute drive south from the place of Sunday’s attack.
“In recent days, we definitely feel like the situation (in the West Bank) is getting worse,” said Shalom Galil, a paramedic who assisted at the scene of the shooting.
Following the attack, Israel set up checkpoints at the entrances to the West Bank city of Ramallah, searching cars entering the city and checking drivers’ IDs. Some Israeli-controlled roads were completely blocked to Palestinian traffic.
Speaking at a military ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “settle the score” with the attacker who killed the two soldiers. He also ordered the expedited demolition of attackers’ homes within 48 hours, increased detentions of Hamas militants in the West Bank and the legalization of thousands of existing settlement homes in the West Bank that he says were built in “good faith” but whose status is unclear.