An Israeli man was killed on Tuesday in a shooting attack near the Jewish community of Hermesh in northwestern Samaria.
The victim, a man in his 30s, sustained a bullet wound to the upper body, medics said. He received treatment at the scene before being airlifted by helicopter to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, where he was pronounced dead.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Local authorities said that the victim came under fire from a passing vehicle on a nearby highway. He continued driving until reaching Hermesh, where the medics treated him.
“The wounded man arrived with a fatal injury. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the doctors, the team had to pronounce him dead. The family has been notified. The hospital shares in the family’s grief,” the medical center said.
Israeli forces launched a manhunt for the Palestinian terrorist and set up roadblocks in the area.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, said that the checkpoint where the shooting occurred was not active and thus no Israeli soldiers were present.
“The writing was on the wall. If the checkpoint had been active, the attack would have been avoided,” he said.
“This is a reality where the security checkpoints do not exist and the terrorist can go freely and return freely, and five minutes after he was shooting he is drinking coffee in his house in the village. It costs us in blood,” Dagan continued, demanding that Israel launch a military offensive to root out the terrorism in Judea and Samaria.
The attack came after an IDF soldier was moderately wounded by shrapnel during a counterterrorism operation overnight Monday in the Palestinian village of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem in northwestern Samaria.
Troops came under “massive fire” during the mission, and responded in kind, the military said.
The soldier was wounded when a bomb was thrown in his direction. He was evacuated to the hospital and his family was notified.
Earlier Monday, Israeli troops came under attack on Route 60 near Kiryat Arba in Judea. The soldiers returned fire and a search was initiated for the assailants.
A military ambulance was damaged but no injuries were reported.
