Israeli soldiers wounded in bus shooting in occupied West Bank | Israel-Palestine conflict News
The incident comes just days after the Israeli military killed two Palestinians in raids in the occupied West Bank.
At least five Israeli soldiers and a driver were injured in a shootout on a bus they were staying in in the occupied West Bank, military and medical authorities said on Sunday.
The incident, in which Israeli authorities said two suspected gunmen were arrested as they tried to escape, took place within driving distance of Jenin and Nablus. Palestinian cities have seen months of intense and deadly attacks by the Israeli army.
Witnesses said Palestinians in a car overtook the bus, sprayed it with bullets, and when it stopped, they tried to set it on fire. Israeli television aired footage of a car on fire after a fire bomb exploded from inside.
However, there was no immediate Palestinian statement of responsibility.
A Hamas spokesman hailed the attack as “proof that all efforts by the (Israeli) Occupation Forces to stop the escalating resistance activities in the West Bank have failed”.
The road, where the incident happened, is dotted with Israeli settlements and Palestinian villages and towns.
Israel occupies the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and has built more than 200 settlements with over half a million settlers. Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands are illegal under international law. Settlement expansion is also an obstacle to peace with Palestinians, who long for the territory to become part of their future state.
Shoots
Matti Carmi, from Magen David Adom emergency medical services, said “two victims of the shooting” were being treated outside the bus. Both were conscious and taken to hospital in the Israeli coastal city of Haifa.
Three others were hit by shards of glass and then transported by road to another hospital in northern Israel, the MDA said.
A photo released by a union representing bus drivers shows the vehicle’s windshield with multiple bullet holes.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israeli forces “immediately pursued and arrested the suspects in the attack”.
Sunday’s incident follows a shooting last month on an Israeli bus in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed, in a step that has never been recognized by the international community.
Eight people, including several US citizens, were wounded in the pre-dawn attack near Jerusalem’s Old City.
After an hour-long manhunt, police said one suspect had turned himself in.
The incident happened just days after the Israeli army kill two Palestinian men in two separate raids in the West Bank – one at the al-Ain refugee camp in Nablus and the other at Umm al-Sharayet, a southern neighborhood of Ramallah and al-Bireh.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces for allegedly trying to carry out stabbing or car ramming attacks. Human rights groups accuse Israeli forces of deliberately killing Palestinians without risking their lives.
