JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) — Israeli police opened fire on Sunday at a pair of suspected attackers who rammed their car into a West Bank checkpoint. The incident led to the fatal shooting of a young Palestinian girl in a nearby vehicle, according to the local police and medical officials. The suspects were also shot, and a young police officer sustained minor injuries. This incident occurred following an eruption of violence in the occupied territory, where nine people were killed earlier in the day. The surge of violence in the region followed the outbreak of Israel’s war against Hamas on October 7.
Israeli police reported that the incident took place at a checkpoint near the Palestinian village of Biddu, just northwest of Jerusalem. Security camera footage showed a white van ramming into a pair of Israeli police officers at the checkpoint before the police pursued the vehicle and opened fire. While the man and woman inside the van were shot, an innocent girl in another vehicle in front of them was also shot and tragically pronounced dead. The conditions of the suspected attackers were not immediately known, but a female officer in the paramilitary border police was lightly wounded.
Elsewhere, a man driving a car with Israeli license plates was fatally shot at a busy intersection in the West Bank, hours after a violent confrontation left seven Palestinians and a border policewoman dead. The victim was later identified as a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem who was presumably mistaken for an Israeli due to the license plates. Palestinian militants have carried out numerous shooting attacks against Israelis in the West Bank over the years, and the military described Sunday’s shooting as such an incident.
The surge of violence in the West Bank comes amid increased restrictions on Palestinian residents 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 reported that Israeli forces have killed 330 Palestinians in the West Bank since Hamas’ cross-border attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and roughly 250 hostages.
Most of the Palestinians were killed during armed confrontations in the West Bank, which the Israeli military says began during operations to arrest Palestinian gunmen. The deadly confrontations underscore the ongoing tensions and violence in the region, raising concerns about further escalation and civilian casualties.
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