Palestinian gunman kills two Israelis in West Bank – army

Two Israelis were killed Friday in a shooting attack near the West Bank city of Hebron, army and medical officials said.

Abdallah was walking out of the bathroom as he was preparing to pray, the undercover security men asked him to stand at his place and as he was looking at them they shot him.

The military stated Azzam Shalalda stabbed an Israeli within the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion final month, and was then shot by his sufferer however managed to flee.

Surveillance video purportedly from Al-Ahli hospital posted online appeared to back his account, with a group of men in plainclothes, including a few seeming to wear fake beards, entering with someone in a wheelchair.

They entered with someone in a wheelchair pretending to be pregnant.

“As his cousin exited the bathroom, which was inside the room, they fired five bullets: one bullet in the head, one in the chest and three in his body”, added Shawar.

“All the other patients in the room started screaming while they let him bleed”.

The current round of bloodshed was triggered by unrest at a major Jerusalem shrine revered by both Muslims and Jews, and quickly spread to Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza border.

Friday’s attack near Hebron was reminiscent of a similar incident in October when Palestinians shot and killed an Israeli couple in front of their four children, including a 4-months-old infant, as the family was driving in the West Bank.

Yusuf Awad, 22, was killed near Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said, while 23-year-old Hassan Jihad al-Baw was shot dead in Halhul, north of Hebron, Palestinian medics said.

Amnesty also pointed to the 6 November slaying of 72-year-old Tharwat al-Sharawi, who Israel says tried to run over a few of its occupation soldiers in Hebron. It will not help to restart the moribund peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, and may only entrench an Israeli government that believes that it is unfairly singled out by a hostile and, in its view, anti-Semitic worldwide community.

Palestinian National Economy Minister Abeer Odeh on Wednesday welcomed the decision, which he said was “a step in the right direction and will go towards delegitimizing products made on Israeli settlements built on [stolen] Palestinian land”.

The Shin Bet issued a statement declaring that that the Israeli security forces “will not allow safe refuge for terrorist operatives, whoever they are”.

However, Kayed Jaradat, the mayor of Seir village where Azzam is from, eight kilometres north-east of Hebron, said the 20-year-old did not carry out a stabbing attack, but was shot and wounded by a settler while picking olives with his family.

“During his escape, the assailant was shot and injured by his victim”, the military said.

During a visit by Netanyahu to the White House Monday, the USA president endorsed the crackdown, condemning in “the strongest terms Palestinian violence”, while reaffirming his “strong belief that Israel has not just the right, but the obligation to protect itself”.

An undercover team also carried out a raid on a hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus last month, seizing a suspect in the murder of an Israeli couple days earlier.