Israel - Hamas War : Israeli soldier killed after shooting near Jerusalem claimed by Hamas
According to Israeli police, three Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint on a route between Jerusalem and the West bank city of Bethlehem on Thursday, killing one Israeli soldier and injuring others before being shot dead. Hamas, an Islamist terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. According to police commander Yaakov Shabtai, the gunmen had prepared a far larger attack.
They arrived in a car from the direction of Bethlehem, according to Shabtai, and opened fire when Israeli troops began questioning them. They were slain when Israeli soldiers retaliated, he claimed.
Police stated they seized two automatic rifles, two pistols, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, ten fully filled magazines, and two axes on the suspects and in their car following the battle.
Palestinian officials did not respond immediately.
Footage posted on social media from inside a bus showed a soldier fleeing and collapsing as gunshots rang out at the checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
According to the Israeli military, a soldier with the military police was murdered. Tensions in the region have risen since a catastrophic raid by Hamas militants who crossed the from Gaza into israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping approximately 240 people, including children, according to Israeli estimates.
As a result, israel launched an air, land, and sea attack on Gaza, killing around 11,500 people, over 40% of them were minors, according to the Palestinian health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right National Security Minister, said Thursday's incident demonstrated that israel should adopt a stronger line in the West bank and deal with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the occupied region, just as it deals with Hamas in Gaza.
"Containment will blow up in our faces like with Gaza. This is the time to act," he wrote on social media platform X.
They arrived in a car from the direction of Bethlehem, according to Shabtai, and opened fire when Israeli troops began questioning them. They were slain when Israeli soldiers retaliated, he claimed.
Police stated they seized two automatic rifles, two pistols, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, ten fully filled magazines, and two axes on the suspects and in their car following the battle.
Palestinian officials did not respond immediately.
Footage posted on social media from inside a bus showed a soldier fleeing and collapsing as gunshots rang out at the checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
According to the Israeli military, a soldier with the military police was murdered. Tensions in the region have risen since a catastrophic raid by Hamas militants who crossed the from Gaza into israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping approximately 240 people, including children, according to Israeli estimates.
As a result, israel launched an air, land, and sea attack on Gaza, killing around 11,500 people, over 40% of them were minors, according to the Palestinian health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right National Security Minister, said Thursday's incident demonstrated that israel should adopt a stronger line in the West bank and deal with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the occupied region, just as it deals with Hamas in Gaza.
"Containment will blow up in our faces like with Gaza. This is the time to act," he wrote on social media platform X.