Al-Jazeera / August 19, 2023
Deadly shooting comes after a Palestinian man shot by Israeli forces this week succumbed to his wounds on Saturday.
Two Israelis have been shot dead south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank by a suspected Palestinian gunman.
Israel’s ambulance service said two men – ages 60 and 29 – were shot near the Palestinian village of Huwara. Paramedics said the two people were targeted inside a carwash.
“Both were unconscious and had sustained gunshot wounds to their bodies,” a spokesperson for the ambulance service said.
The Israeli army spokesperson for Arabic media, Avichay Adraee, confirmed two Israelis had been killed.
TWEET : Translation: Urgent – suspected terrorist shooting attack targeted a number of Israeli citizens in Huwara, leading to the killing of two. The IDF is tracking suspects and has erected checkpoints in the area.
The situation in the West Bank has been particularly volatile over the past 15 months with stepped up deadly Israeli raids and rampages by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages.
Huwara has been the scene of attacks by Jewish settlers and retribution in the form of Palestinian shooting attacks over the past few months.
In the area, “there has been an intensified military presence for a year now. Huwara has been a flashpoint of a lot of tension. We’ve seen a month ago Israeli settlers rampaging through Huwara during the night, burning Palestinian homes,” said Al-Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Bethlehem.
Saturday’s shooting comes the same day a Palestinian man shot by Israeli forces earlier this week during a raid in the occupied West Bank succumbed to wounds.
Mohammed Abu Asaab was “seriously injured in the head” on Wednesday in Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of the northern West Bank city of Nablus and died Saturday, the official news agency WAFA reported.
Abu Asaab was hit during clashes that erupted when Israeli “undercover forces” surrounded a house in the camp, it said.
His death brought to 218 the number of Palestinians killed in violence this year linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Prospects of reviving US-brokered peace talks that collapsed almost a decade ago and that aimed to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, remain dim.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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Two Israelis killed in West Bank shooting attack
MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / August 19, 2023
Deadly incident took place near the Palestinian town of Huwara, the scene of recent rampage by Jewish settlers.
Two Israeli men were shot and killed by suspected Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the army said.
The shooting took place near the northern town of Huwara, the scene of several rampages by Israeli Jewish settlers in recent months.
Israeli emergency services said a man in his 30s and a man in his 60s were hit by two attackers at a car-wash. The identities of the assailants are not yet known. According to preliminary reports cited by Israeli media, the attack was “criminally motivated”.
Israeli military said it had closed several roads in the area and a manhunt was underway.
Huwara, which Israelis drive through to reach illegal settlements, has become a flashpoint this year following previous deadly attacks on Israelis and violent raids by Israeli settlers “seeking revenge“.
In February, one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 wounded in a settler rampage on Huwara and other West Bank towns and villages, Palestinian health officials said.
Settlers had burnt down at least 35 homes, partially damaged 40 others, and many buildings were set on fire while their Palestinian inhabitants sheltered inside.
More than 100 cars were also burnt or otherwise destroyed.
Over the past two years, the West Bank has experienced a spike in violence as a result of increased Israeli raids and settler attacks.
This week alone, two Palestinians died of wounds previously sustained during raids by Israeli forces.
According to a tally by Middle East Eye, at least 215 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, including 37 children, a rate of nearly one fatality per day.
A total of 179 people have died in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since January, making 2023 one of the bloodiest years in occupied Palestine. Another 36 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have killed 30 Israelis in the same period, including six children.
