Tel Aviv: A Palestinian man with Israeli citizenship went on a shooting rampage in several towns in central Israel on Sunday, June 7, killing one person and wounding five others, according to Israeli police. The attacker was killed by the police.
The attack came at a time of heightened tensions following a spate of Israeli settler attacks and the deadly shooting of a Palestinian baby over the weekend in the nearby West Bank. Police identified the attacker as a resident of the Arab town of Taybeh in his 20s, but his precise motives were not immediately known.
The attack began with a shooting on Sunday morning at a gas station near the town of Kokhav Yair, located on the Israeli side of the boundary with the occupied West Bank. Several other shootings were reported in two nearby Israeli towns and close to the Israeli settlement of Salit, inside the West Bank.
Police initially feared a series of coordinated attacks but eventually determined that a gunman and an accomplice who may have served as his driver were involved. The suspected accomplice was arrested later after he tried to stab the police with a glass bottle.
Police said a 35-year-old Israeli man was killed by the gunman in Kokhav Yair, while the Magen David Adom rescue service said five other people were wounded, two severely.
Fears of a widespread attack prompted authorities to order residents to stay at home, and children in the area were kept in lockdown at school for at least three hours.
“Since Oct. 7, the scenario we were expecting was terrorists crossing into our towns from over the boundary. I don’t think that anyone imagined that we would discover the attackers were Israeli citizens,” Oshrit Gani Gonen, the regional council head, told Israeli media, referring to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza.
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Security minister posts video reportedly with dead gunman
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the security forces who killed the attacker, while Israel’s hard-line public security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the police force, released a video of himself standing next to what appeared to be a blurred image of the dead gunman.
“This is the end of every terrorist, this is how it should look,” said Ben-Gvir, who recently led an effort to pass a new law that seeks to impose the death penalty on Palestinian attackers. That law faces legal challenges.
Ben-Gvir has come under sharp condemnation from other Israeli leaders for making controversial videos, such as his treatment of flotilla activists who were detained after attempting to break the maritime blockade of Gaza.
The West Bank has experienced a surge in deadly violence since the war in Gaza began. Israel has stepped up military operations across the territory, killing hundreds of people. It says raids are aimed at militants, but scores of civilians have also been killed.
The Oct. 7 attack killed around 1,200 people and took 251 as hostages. Israel’s ensuing offensive in Gaza has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, including combatants and civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.
Israeli strike kills 4 in Gaza
Also on Sunday, at least four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a police point in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. The dead were taken to a field hospital run by the Red Crescent. At least 10 others were wounded, the charity said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike, but has said in the past that it will target militants who pose a threat to its troops.
The Oct. 10 US-brokered ceasefire deal attempted to halt the war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu, in a Cabinet meeting, repeated his pledge to take 70 per cent of Gaza: “We are presently holding more than 60 per cent of the territory, and soon we will reach 70 per cent.” He added that Israel is not allowing Hamas to “rearm or harm us,” in comments released to the media.
The head of the US-created Board of Peace that oversees the ceasefire acknowledged last month that next steps in the truce have stalled over the key issue of disarming Hamas.
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