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In the second similar assault on military forces in recent days, an Israeli soldier was shot and killed close to an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian organisation claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to the Israeli army, the soldier was slain on Tuesday when “two attackers rolled up in a car next to the neighbourhood of Shavei Shomron and fired live fire.”
A loose confederation of Palestinian fighters known as the Lions’ Den has just been established, and it claimed responsibility for the shooting in the Israeli settlement.
West of Nablus, in the Deir Sharaf region, the organisation declared, “We announce carrying out a second shooting operation targeting occupation [Israeli] soldiers.”
The region sits between the Palestinian towns of Nablus and Jenin, which have endured a half-year of escalated Israeli army incursions following a spate of street attacks in Israeli cities.
According to the military’s announcement, Israeli soldiers are searching for the attackers. Israeli forces were stationed in the region, according to the AFP news agency, and were inspecting vehicles.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz stated on Twitter that he will “get our hands on the terrorist and those who assisted him.”
Ido Baroukh, a 21-year-old soldier, was identified as the victim.
Three days prior, a Palestinian refugee camp called Shuafat in occupied east Jerusalem shot and killed an Israeli soldier, age 18, at a checkpoint.
Police have identified the alleged shooter as a 22-year-old city-dwelling Palestinian. Israeli authorities are still looking for him.
The United Nations said that the refugee camp’s schools were closed on Monday and that Israeli authorities had barred the camp’s entrances.
Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian Knesset member, went to the camp on Tuesday and talked about how the people there were “suffering.”
“Sick individuals are not able to get outside to be treated, bakeries are empty, some doctors and nurses were unable to get in,” he told the AFP news agency.
“You must wait in your automobile for three or four hours in order to exit. It is collective retribution and pain, Tibi continued.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in the meantime said that since Friday, four Palestinian adolescents have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank.
A 12-year-old kid who was a fifth Palestinian was killed on Monday as a result of injuries received during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin last month.
In recent months, the Israeli army and other security services have conducted almost daily raids in the West Bank, primarily in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where the Palestinian armed resistance is growing more organised and new fighting factions are forming.