JERUSALEM (AP) – A Palestinian assailant opened hearth at an Israeli navy checkpoint within the West Bank on Saturday earlier than being shot and killed, Israeli police mentioned. Elsewhere within the occupied territory, settlers rampaged by means of a Palestinian village, hurling stones, spraying bullets and setting hearth to houses.
The Palestinian gunman approached Israeli troops stationed on the Qalandiya checkpoint exterior Jerusalem early within the morning, pulled out an M16 rifle and opened hearth, the Israeli police mentioned.
Israeli safety forces mentioned they shot again, killing the suspected assailant. According to the Israeli rescue service, two safety guards of their 20s had been hospitalized with minor wounds – at the least one from bullet fragments. There was no instant phrase on the attacker’s id.
Later on Saturday, residents of the Palestinian village of Umm Safa mentioned that some 50 Israeli settlers armed with rifles and flammable liquid stormed by means of the streets and tried to set hearth to at the least 5 houses with individuals inside. The Israeli navy mentioned it despatched safety forces to the scene and arrested an Israeli citizen.
Palestinian rescue groups mentioned they evacuated young children who had been suffocating and trapped inside a burning home.
Some settlers additionally opened hearth at civilians and medics. An area station, Palestine TV, mentioned settlers fired at Mohammed Radi, its correspondent masking the assaults, shattering his digital camera. The Palestinian Red Crescent mentioned that one among its medics was wounded by gunfire.
Another two medics had been wounded when settlers threw a big rock at an ambulance, which crashed by means of the windshield.
Israeli settlers additionally shot and killed a horse within the village, mentioned resident Ibrahim Ebiat. “This is pure terror,” he mentioned. “People are scared and angry.”
Young Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli safety forces who opened hearth and unleashed tear gasoline at them, witnesses mentioned. The Israeli navy mentioned it was “working to disperse the friction.” One soldier was wounded by a thrown stone, it mentioned, denouncing the violence.
The head of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, known as on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “condemn this disgrace and deal with it properly.”
“Settler violence has crossed every line,” he mentioned.
The occasions capped a bloody week within the West Bank that left 16 Palestinians and 4 Israelis lifeless.
An hourslong gun battle between Israeli safety forces and Palestinian militants within the northern Jenin refugee camp killed seven Palestinians and wounded eight Israeli troopers earlier this week. Two Palestinian gunmen then killed 4 Israeli civilians at a gasoline station earlier than being shot and killed.
Then, a uncommon Israeli airstrike by a pilotless drone killed three Palestinian militants in a automobile. Israeli settler assaults in revenge for the lethal Palestinian taking pictures left one Palestinian lifeless, many wounded and a path of destruction by means of Palestinian cities.
On Saturday, Palestinian well being officers additionally mentioned {that a} 39-year-old man, Tariq Idris, died of wounds sustained in confrontations with Israeli safety forces within the northern metropolis of Nablus the day earlier than. The Israeli navy had raided Nablus to arrest three suspected Palestinian militants and fired at residents who shot at them and threw Molotov cocktails, it mentioned.
The spiraling violence has elevated strain on Netanyahu’s far-right authorities, with its hard-liners calling for a broad navy operation towards Palestinian militants, in addition to on the Palestinian Authority, which has come below criticism for failing to guard Palestinian civilians.
This 12 months has been one of many deadliest for Palestinians within the West Bank in years. At least 137 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli hearth within the West Bank thus far in 2023, based on a tally by The Associated Press, almost half of them affiliated with militant teams. As of Saturday, 24 individuals on the Israeli aspect have been killed in Palestinian assaults, most of them civilians.
Israel captured the West Bank, together with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, within the 1967 Mideast conflict. The Palestinians search these territories for a future unbiased state.
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