Two Israelis shot dead by a Palestinian at a gas station in the West Bank
Two Israelis have died in a Palestinian armed attack in the West Bank while the war between Israel and the fundamentalist group Hamas continues in the Gaza Strip without a truce agreement being seen in the coming days as US President Joe Biden had predicted.
According to initial information, the perpetrator of this Thursday's attack was a police officer from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).. In the middle of the afternoon, he arrived at the gas station near the Eli neighborhood and shot at point-blank range two Israelis, one 16 years old and the other 57 years old.. Shortly after, he was shot dead by one of the owners of the food establishment where four Israelis were shot dead by two Palestinians nine months ago.. As he told the media, he is a reservist who was part of the ground operation in Gaza.
The Palestinian attacker this Thursday was from the Kalandia refugee camp, between Ramallah and Jerusalem, and was released in 2019.
“We welcome the heroic attack in Ali in the same place where previously two operatives of the armed wing of Hamas carried out a similar attack,” the Islamist group reacted.. “It is the response to the crimes in Nablusi Square in Gaza,” added Hamas, which this Thursday accused Israel of having shot and killed more than 100 Palestinians who were waiting for humanitarian aid in that area of the city located north of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Army denies shooting at Palestinians seeking assistance or at the humanitarian convoy. “Dozens of Gaza residents died due to the stampede and crowding and unfortunately Palestinian trucks ran them over during an attempt to escape,” said army spokesman Daniel Hagari, praising “the bravery and determination of the civilian who neutralized the terrorist in Eli “.
The devastating military offensive that Israel launched in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, the Islamist group's calls to “confront soldiers and settlers in all parts of Palestine” and “carry out martyrdom attacks against the occupation” and The proximity of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims and always sensitive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict around Jerusalem, has triggered tension in the West Bank. According to data from the internal secret service (Shabak), 200 Palestinian attacks, including 150 armed attacks, have been aborted since the beginning of 2024.
The great instability in this territory with an increase in raids and incursions by the Israeli Army, with increasingly frequent use of drones, is of particular concern to the United States, which is leading the mediation to achieve a truce between Israel and Hamas in the hope that can calm two explosive fronts: the Israeli-Lebanese border, where there is an intense exchange of blows between the Israeli Air Force and the Shiite Hezbollah militia, and the West Bank.