Two Israelis injured in shooting attack in West Bank
Jerusalem, Mar 19 (EFE).- Two Israelis were wounded after their vehicle came under fire in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s emergency medical service said Sunday, as tensions have been running high in the region.
Magen David Adom (MDA) said that one of those injured on the main street of Huawara, a town that has been at the center of Israeli-Palestinian violence recently, was in critical condition.
The wounded were transferred to the hospital, while the military and the Israeli security forces continued a manhunt for the alleged attacker.
According to local media, those attacked were traveling with three minors in the back of the vehicle and were passing through Huwara, where two Israeli settlers died in an attack weeks ago.
Hundreds of settlers went on a violent rampage in Huwara then in retaliation, burning dozens of houses and cars in an incident that also left a Palestinian killed.
Sunday’s incident comes as senior officials from Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) met in Egypt to reduce tensions in the region, with officials from Egypt, Jordan and the United states mediating.
The Islamist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad hailed the attack, although they did not claim responsibility for it.
“Our people have the right to respond by all means to the crimes of the occupation (Israel),” Hamas said, adding the “armed resistance continues and intensifies in the West Bank.”
This comes amid spiraling violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
On Thursday, four Palestinians, including a child, were killed after an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp triggered heavy clashes.
At least 86 Palestinians, including 16 children, have been killed this year, an average of more than one per day, following military operations, Palestinian-led attacks and clashes with Israeli troops, the deadliest start to the year in the West Bank since 2000.
On the Israeli side, 14 people died in 2023.
The wave of violence broke out at the end of March last year when the Israeli military launched near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank in response to a series of deadly attacks against Israelis. EFE
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