An Israeli woman killed while another man sustains serious injuries in the south of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Monday, said Israeli Authorities, as violence continues in the territory after another recent shooting of two Israelis. The attacker, suspected to be Palestinian adds to the sharp escalation in attacks involving Palestinian militants, Israeli security forces and radical Jewish settlers, in recent months.
The incident took place when Israeli fires were already on guard and searching for the assailant who killed the two Israelis on Saturday.
Armed Palestinians gunning down Israelis as well as deadly raids carried out by the Israeli army to arrest militants has fuelled the worst fight between the two communities in nearly twenty years, in the West Bank.
Charged retaliation from fanatic Jewish settlers against Palestinians has heightened tensions in the territory too. Local officials reported that Israeli residents threw stones and firebombs at a Palestinian home, on Sunday, near the site of the attack that took place on Saturday.
Israeli security forces said the suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire at an Israeli car on Route 60, the main north-south road in the West Bank, near the major city of Hebron. The army said the apparent drive-by shooting killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man as the two were driving.
The Israeli rescue service also reported that both the victims were in their 40s, while a 6-year-old girl sat in the car, unharmed. The man, found unconscious was later rushed to the Hospital while the gunman fled.
Israeli Security forces embark on their second manhunt in three days. The attack was lauded at by the Hamas militant group and Palestinian Islamic Jihadists, as they viewed it in response to Israel’s expanding settlement in the West Bank.The ghastly episode followed another Palestinian attack which killed an Israeli father and son, situated in northern Palestinian town of Hawara.
As per a tally by the Associated Press, nearly 180 Palestinians have also been by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the beginning of this year, while Israel maintains that most of them killed were militants. However, stone throwing youths, not involved in the confrontations had also been killed.
Israel claims that the raids are intended to dismantle militant networks, and deflect any future attacks, while Palestinians observe the raid as an obstructing element to their security forces. Israel had captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
