A Palestinian gunman opened fire at an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank on Saturday before being shot and killed, Israeli police have said.
Later on Saturday, Israeli settlers rampaged through a Palestinian village in the occupied territory, hurling stones, spraying bullets and setting fire to homes. The incidents capped a week of violence in the West Bank that has left 16 Palestinians and four Israelis dead.
The Palestinian gunman approached Israeli troops stationed at the Qalandiya checkpoint outside Jerusalem early in the morning, pulled out an M16 rifle and opened fire, according to Israeli police.
Israeli security forces said they shot back, killing the suspect. According to the Israeli rescue service, two security guards in their 20s were hospitalised with minor wounds – at least one from bullet fragments.
Police said the identity of the attacker was not yet known, but that he had arrived on foot from inside the West Bank.
Later on Saturday, Palestinians in the village of Umm Safa said about 50 Israeli settlers armed with rifles and flammable liquid stormed through the streets and tried to set fire to at least five homes with people inside. The Israeli military said it sent security forces to the scene and arrested an Israeli citizen.
Palestinian rescue teams said they evacuated small children who were suffocating and trapped inside a burning house.
Some settlers also opened fire at civilians and medics. A local station, Palestine TV, said settlers fired at Mohammed Radi, its correspondent covering the attacks, shattering his camera. The Palestinian Red Crescent said that one of its medics was wounded by gunfire.
Another two medics were wounded when settlers threw a large rock at an ambulance, which crashed through the windshield.
Israeli settlers also shot and killed a horse in the village, said Ibrahim Ebiat, who lives in the village. “This is pure terror,” he said. “People are scared and angry.”
Young Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli security forces who opened fire and unleashed teargas at them, witnesses said. The Israeli military said it was “working to disperse the friction”. One soldier was wounded by a thrown stone, it said.
The head of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, called on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to “condemn this disgrace and deal with it properly”.
“Settler violence has crossed every line,” he said.
In the past few days an Israeli military helicopter has raided the city of Jenin, killing five Palestinians, a Palestinian gunman has killed four people near an Israeli settlement and settlers have attacked Palestinian villages.
