Israeli army kills Palestinian suspect in West Bank

Jerusalem, May 18 (IANS) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its forces shot and killed a Palestinian man who ran toward them carrying a suspected booby-trapped bag in the West Bank village of Bruqin.

According to the IDF, the incident occurred on Saturday during an ongoing manhunt for the gunman who killed an Israeli woman in the late stage of pregnancy on Wednesday night.

She was in a vehicle on the road between the Jewish settlements of Peduel and Berukhin, reportedly en route to the delivery room, Xinhua news agency reported.

Her baby is hospitalised in serious condition at Schneider Children's Medical Centre near Tel Aviv, but is no longer in life-threatening danger.

As part of the search for the shooter, the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency on Saturday morning conducted targeted searches and arrested several suspects in Bruqin, located near the attack scene, the Army's statement said.

The statement noted that an investigation into the attack is being led jointly by the Shin Bet and the Israel Police.

The terror group Hamas praised the Israeli woman's killing as "heroic" and called for more such acts, but did not claim responsibility.

IDF forces have been surrounding the Palestinian towns of Bruqin and Kafr ad-Dik, located near the site of the attack, amid the hunt for the terrorist, who is believed to have acted alone.

Separately, the IDF said on Saturday evening that troops had killed a Palestinian who was allegedly hurling stones at Israeli motorists near the West Bank town of Burqa.

The IDF said troops of the 636th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit identified three suspects hurling stones at a main road and opened fire on them, killing one and wounding the other two.

The military said that on Thursday, it had killed five Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank.

The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip ignited the war there.

Since then, troops have arrested nearly 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, more than 950 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.

The IDF has said the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

There has also been a significant increase in settler violence against Palestinians since the start of the war.

During the same period, 52 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank.

Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.

--IANS

int/khz