The Magen David Adom paramedic said the two were killed in the Ariel settlement. The four injured were taken to hospital in serious condition. It was the latest attack in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence this year that has included Palestinian attackers targeting Israeli civilians and almost nightly Israeli arrest raids that have sparked unrest in the occupied territories. The Israeli military said the man first attacked people at the entrance to the settlement’s industrial zone and then stabbed more people at a nearby gas station. The trooper said he then stole a car, deliberately crashed into a car on a nearby highway and hit another person, before fleeing on foot. It said the attacker was shot dead by a soldier and that troops were searching the area for additional suspects. Amateur video broadcast on Israeli television appeared to show the suspected gunman running down a highway and collapsing to the ground after being shot. The Palestinian Ministry of Health later identified him as Mohammad Souf, 18, from the nearby village of Hares. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Gaza’s leaders, the militant group Hamas, hailed it as “heroic”. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid sent his condolences to the families of the victims killed in the attack and said Israel is “fighting terrorism relentlessly and [with] full power”. “Our security forces are working around the clock to protect Israeli citizens and damage the infrastructure of terrorism everywhere, all the time,” he said. This year’s upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has resulted in the deaths of at least 25 Israelis and more than 130 Palestinians, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. Israel says the near-nightly arrest raids in the West Bank — launched after Palestinian attacks that killed 19 Israelis last spring — are necessary to dismantle militant networks at a time when Palestinian security forces are unable or unwilling to do so. . Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces and are aimed at consolidating Israel’s 55-year occupation of territory they want for their long-awaited state. Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested in such raids, with many placed in “administrative detention,” which allows Israel to hold them without trial or charge. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek these lands for their longed-for independent state.
