Israel detains 4 Palestinian suspects in shooting of settler
Jerusalem, Dec 19 (EFE).- Four Palestinians have been arrested in connection to a shooting that killed an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities said Sunday.
On Thursday, a car carrying three religious students close the Homesh settlement, which is illegal under international law, was targeted with gunfire. One of the settlers, aged 25, succumbed to his wounds in a nearby hospital, while the other two sustained minor injuries.
“The 4 suspects, and the weapon used to carry out the horrific attack last week, were caught overnight,” the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on Twitter.
The suspects were arrested in Silat al-Harithiya village in the northern West Bank during a joint operation between the Israeli security agency (Shin Bet), the military and the police’s counter-terrorism unit.
Investigations are still underway, according to the authorities.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett welcomed the news in a Twitter post, saying “terrorism will not win and will not move us from our place.”
Following the shooting on Thursday, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked several nearby Palestinian villages by throwing stones at residents and setting a house on fire.
Settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have soared in recent months. So far, some 332 attacks on properties and 118 others on residents have been recorded.
A spike in attacks against Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has also been observed place since last month, with Thursday’s shooting the ninth in less than 30 days.
On Saturday, a Palestinian woman was detained after she attempted to stab an Israeli settler in the West Bank city of Hebron.EFE
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