An Israeli was shot dead today in a fresh shootout near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, as violence continues in the area after an attack yesterday on Sunday left two Israeli settlers dead and retaliatory attacks who killed a Palestinian.
The bullet attack occurred this afternoon at a crossing near the Jewish settlement of Beit Arava, in the area of the Palestinian city of Jericho, the Israeli army and medical services said.
The 27-year-old victim was seriously injured and taken to hospital in critical condition while unconscious and undergoing continuous resuscitation, Israeli emergency medical services Magen David Adom (MDA) and United Hatzalah reported. Ultimately, he did not survive the severity of his injuries and was pronounced dead a few hours later.
According to the Israeli army, the perpetrators of the attack were several people who fired from inside a vehicle and then fled. Faced with this, the soldiers “block the roads” to capture the attackers and redouble their vigilance at checkpoints in the area.
According to local media, they have cut off entrances to Jericho and are also raiding a refugee camp in the city.
Since yesterday, there has been a new spike in violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, after a gunman killed two Israeli settlers in the Palestinian town of Huwara, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
After that, groups of settlers called for revenge and some 400 people attacked the town, where they burned houses, cars and forced Palestinian families to be evacuated.
According to media and analysts, it was the biggest attack by settlers in decades. It also resulted in the death of a Palestinian and more than 300 injuries, while the attacks spread to other Palestinian towns in the northern West Bank.
All this is taking place against a backdrop of a serious upsurge in violence, both settler and Palestinian attacks, in addition to the intense raids, often accompanied by armed clashes, that the Israeli army has been carrying out regularly for a year. in the West Bank. , particularly in the north, in the region of Nablus and Jenin.
The conflict has claimed 63 Palestinian lives in the West Bank so far this year, the region’s deadliest start to the year since 2000, averaging more than one death a day.
In turn, with today’s death, 14 people died on the Israeli side, most of them victims of attacks in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and has since maintained one of the longest occupations in recent history.