Drive-by shooting and clashes in a West Bank hot spot leave 7 Palestinians and 2 Israelis dead

Jerusalem, January 7

An Israeli man was fatally shot at a busy intersection in the West Bank on Sunday, hours after a violent confrontation elsewhere in the Israeli-occupied territory left seven Palestinians and a member of Israel’s paramilitary border police dead.

In Sunday’s drive-by shooting, assailants fired through the victim’s front windshield, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. Paramedics arriving at the scene in the central West Bank found the man unresponsive in his car.

The Israeli army said security forces were searching the area for the shooter. Israeli media reported that security forces found an abandoned car that was likely used to carry out the attack, and the suspect fled on foot.

Hours earlier, a deadly confrontation erupted when Israeli security forces were on patrol to search for roadside bombs in Jenin, a town and adjacent refugee camp by the same name in the northern West Bank.

A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle of the paramilitary border police, killing a policewoman and wounding three others, police said.

An Israeli military helicopter targeted Palestinians in the area who were throwing explosives at Israeli vehicles and extracted the Israeli forces, the Israeli army said. Seven Palestinians were killed in the airstrike, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Mujahhid Nazal, a doctor at nearby clinic, said he heard a “strong explosion” and rushed to the scene of the airstrike. “It was a really dire situation, seven young men were lying on the ground,” he said.

The events followed a dramatic surge in deadly military raids and increase in restrictions on Palestinian residents across the West Bank during the Israel-Hamas war.

Violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the territory has also reached record highs, according to the United Nations.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed 329 Palestinians in the West Bank since Hamas’ cross-border attack in southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and roughly 250 were taken hostage.

Most of the Palestinians were killed during shootouts in the West Bank that the Israeli military says began during operations to arrest Palestinian gunmen. AP

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