Shooting attack near illegal settlement in occupied West Bank

 

At least one person has been critically wounded in an alleged shooting attack near an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli emergency services.

The Israeli army said the assailant had opened fire at security forces who had stopped to inspect his vehicle, which they found suspicious, near the Kedumim settlement on Thursday. He then fled the scene before he was tracked down and “neutralised”, it added.

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said the assailant opened fire at an Israeli security guard near the settlement.

The identity of the attacker was not immediately clear.

The alleged shooting followed Israel’s two-day military offensive earlier in the week on Jenin, further north.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 12 Palestinians, including three children, were killed in the Israeli army’s aerial and ground operation in the densely populated Jenin refugee camp.

At least 120 others were wounded, including 20 who remain in critical condition, while some 3,000 were forced to flee their homes.

Hamas, the Palestinian group that runs the besieged Gaza Strip, praised Thursday’s shooting which it said was a response to the Jenin raid.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian attacker in Tel Aviv wounded seven people in a car-ramming and stabbing attack before an armed civilian shot him dead.

Source: Aljazeera