An Israeli was killed and two others were injured Thursday, December 16, in the occupied West Bank, in an attack on their car.

Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler claimed in the evening that the Israeli army had deployed three additional battalions as well as special forces to catch the attackers. 

A doctor working for the Magen David Adom emergency service explained that he tried to resuscitate an unconscious person in the back of a car after being shot and wounded, adding: "we had to declare her dead" .

The driver of the vehicle and another passenger suffered "minor" injuries and were taken to hospital, he added.

The attack took place in the early evening when "terrorists shot at religious students from the side of the road" while their car was near the Homesh yeshiva (Talmudic school), "a wild colony" , Amnon Shefler said.

This settlement is located in the northern West Bank, near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

The state-run Wafa news agency reported that Israeli soldiers were blocking entrances to Nablus.

"Heroic" attack

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett denounced a "horrific" attack in a statement released by his office.

"The security forces will get their hands on the terrorists very soon and we will make sure that justice is done," he added.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz offered his condolences "to the family of the victim of terrorism, killed in Judea and Samaria", the name given by Israel to the West Bank.

"We will redouble our vigilance and stand ready to defeat terrorism in Judea and Samaria. We will continue to take all necessary measures against terrorist groups in the area," he said.

For its part, the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, in a statement hailed a "heroic" attack, speaking of a "legitimate struggle until the occupier is expelled from all Palestinian lands and that the settlers be ousted ".

The Samaria Regional Council identified the victim as Yehuda Dimentman, a father who lived in Shavei Shomron settlement near Homesh.

This attack follows several others perpetrated in the West Bank or Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Israel have been the scene from October 2015 and for months of anti-Israel attacks, most often committed by young isolated Palestinians.

This violence has since diminished in intensity, but persists sporadically.

The question of settlements

The attack also comes as the Israeli coalition government is divided on the issue of violence committed by Jewish settlers against Palestinians.

From early 2020 to mid-2021, Israeli settlers carried out more than 450 attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, without the Israeli army intervening in the majority of cases to stop the violence, according to an NGO report. anti-colonization B'Tselem.

On Monday, Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev said he discussed "settler violence and how to reduce tensions in the area and strengthen the Palestinian Authority," in a meeting with number three of the State Department, Victoria Nuland.

In a video, Yigal Dilmoni, head of the main settler organization, Yesha, on Thursday called on the Israeli government to legalize the yeshiva in which the victim was studying in retaliation for the attack.

With AFP

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