Three Israelis were killed in Palestinian shootings in the West Bank
Three Israelis were killed and eight wounded in a Palestinian gun attack on a bus and two cars in the northern occupied West Bank, Israeli military and medical staff said.
The dead were identified as two women in their 60s and a 35-year-old police officer. The bus driver was seriously injured.
The Israeli army said “terrorists” opened fire on vehicles near the village of al-Funduq, located on Highway 55, and then fled the scene.
Israeli media quoted military officials as saying at least two Palestinian gunmen carried out the attack and that security forces were pursuing them, setting up barricades and surrounding several towns in the area.
Medical officer Magen David Adom Avichai Ben Tzurya described it as “a very serious attack spread across the road involving many vehicles”.
“We conducted a rapid search and located two women and a man in a private car without a pulse, suffering from severe gunshot wounds,” he said in a statement. We had no choice but to declare them dead at the scene.”
“Inside the bus, we provided first aid to victims who were shot and injured by broken glass, including the bus driver – who was still conscious and suffering from gunshot wounds – as well as other victims. other victims in mild to moderate condition.”
The injured were evacuated to two hospitals in central Israel.
The Israeli police force later named the slain man as Sergeant Elad Yakov Winkelstein, a police investigator from Kibbutz Ein Hanatziv in northern Israel who worked in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring to justice what he called “heinous murderers” along with anyone who assisted them.
“No one can escape,” he wrote on X.
There was no immediate statement from Palestinian armed groups, although Hamas hailed the attack as a “heroic response”. [Israel’s] continue to commit crimes”, including the war in Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in a surge of violence in the West Bank since the start of the war, which was sparked by a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on May 7. October 2023.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said two Palestinians – a 17-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man – were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
The teenager was shot dead during an Israeli raid on the Askar refugee camp near the city of Nablus, 10km east of al-Funduq.
The Israeli army said its troops fired at people who threw explosives at them in the Nablus area, according to Reuters news agency. It added that “an attack has been identified” and the incident is being reviewed.
The man was killed in the town of Meithalun, 21km northeast of al-Funduq, where the Israeli military said Border Police officers killed an armed suspect in a wider operation, of which 19 others were arrested.
