Arab Attacker Opens Fire In Central Israel, Killing 1 And Wounding 5
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A Palestinian man with Israeli citizenship went on a shooting rampage in several towns in central Israel on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five others, according to Israeli police. The attacker was killed by the police.
The number of locations where people were initially shot raised concerns that more than one, coordinated attacker may have crossed the West Bank; this brought back memories of the Hamas-led attacks in October 2023; police later determined that it was a lone gunman and his accomplice.
Rescue services Magen David Adom said the first reports of a shooting were received around 10:30 a.m. at a gas station near the town of Kokhav Yair on the Israeli side of the West Bank border. Shortly thereafter, further reports of armed attacks were received in the towns of Tsur Natan, Tsur Yitzhak, and near the Israeli settlement of Sal’it in the West Bank.
Police arrested a second man involved in the attack later Sunday. During the arrest, police said the man tried to stab the officer with a glass bottle, but no one was injured. Additional investigations were ongoing.
Israeli Channel 12 reported that the gunman remained in his car while shooting, allowing him to reach several locations within minutes.
A 35-year-old Israeli man was killed in the town of Kokhav Yair, according to Israeli rescue services Magen David Adom. One of the victims fled to a McDonald’s restaurant, where his bloody clothes, presumably cut by paramedics, lay crumpled on the floor near the entrance.
Magen David Adom said that a total of five people were injured in the armed attacks, two seriously and three moderately. Rescue services had initially reported six people injured in the chaotic aftermath of the attack.
According to the district council president, residents were instructed to stay at home and children were isolated at school for at least three hours.
Oshrit Gani Gönen, head of the regional council of the region, which includes the towns where the clashes took place, told the Israeli media: “The scenario we have been waiting for since October 7 was that terrorists entered our towns over the border; I don’t think anyone imagined that we would discover that the attackers were Israeli citizens.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the quick response of security forces. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s public security minister who oversees the police, also praised the work of the security forces who arrested him. He posted a video of X standing next to the attacker’s blurred corpse, declaring that “this is the end of every terrorist, this is what it should look like.”
“This is the consequence for terrorists who must be eliminated, if not within the framework of the death penalty law for terrorists, then preferably on the ground,” he said.
Ben-Gvir was harshly condemned by other Israeli leaders for producing controversial videos. Treatment of flotilla activists Those who were detained after trying to break the naval blockade of Gaza, especially in order to rally the support of Israel’s conservative base ahead of the autumn legislative elections.
Tensions were high in Israel and the West Bank and have been rising in the region ever since. war in Gaza It started in October 2023.
Hamas-led militants attack southern Israel Approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage on October 7, 2023. More than 72,000 Palestinians, including combatants and civilians, have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
An earlier version of this story was corrected to show that the location where the Israeli man was killed occurred on the Israeli side of the Israeli-occupied West Bank border, not inside the West Bank.
