An Israeli settler was shot dead in the occupied West Bank on Sunday on the eve of the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday, with the Israeli military saying it had arrested the suspected gunman.
Israel’s military also reported a car-ramming attack attempt in the occupied West Bank, in which the perpetrator was killed.
Beilinson Hospital, in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikvah, said that the 30-year-old Israeli settler from the first attack, carried out near the Israeli settlement of Neveh Tzuf, north of Ramallah, had died of his wounds.
Israel Gantz, the head of the Yesha Council, the main representative organisation for West Bank settlers, said the deceased man was one of their number.
The Israeli army later raided the Clinic H hospital in Ramallah in the West Bank, threatening doctors and staff, and detained a wounded man from his hospital bed, saying he was suspected of carrying out the attack.
The army said a soldier had earlier shot and wounded the suspected assailant at the scene of the incident near Ramallah.
Israel’s army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said that the military was still “on high alert”.
Palestinians reported Israeli military raids on several villages in the West Bank, with dozens of arrests.
AFP journalists reported that many checkpoints in that part of the occupied West Bank had been closed or were conducting searches in vehicles.
“We will impose a closure on the village and conduct investigations, through which we will reach everyone who assisted the terrorist,” Zamir said.
“No terrorist is immune, nor are those who aided them. We will settle the score with all of them: in Gaza, in Lebanon, and in Judea and Samaria,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said, using an Israeli term for the West Bank and referring to the various areas Israel is currently attacking or occupying.
Separately, the military said its troops had eliminated a man “who attempted to carry out a ramming attack against [Israeli army] soldiers operating in the Ganim area,” a newly re-established settlement in the West Bank, near the Palestinian city of Jenin.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the perpetrator as Sami Zwaideh, 32, whom it said Israeli forces shot and killed in the Jenin area.
Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Palestinian territory, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.
According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces or settlers have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians in the territory since the start of the Gaza war.