Two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank on Friday, one by a settler, after being shot in Tel Aviv, as the escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence showed no sign of an explosion.
Tensions remained high a day after Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, on a visit to Israel, called for a de-escalation ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in March and the Jewish Passover holiday in April.
But within hours of the appeal, members of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas opened fire outside a Tel Aviv cafe, wounding three people in their 30s before being shot dead by police.
“I heard shots and saw people running,” David Friedmann, a police officer who helped shoot the attacker, told AFP, and he “ran towards” the scene.
“I fired three rounds at him, (a fellow officer) also fired three rounds, and when he fell, he was shot again so he wouldn’t get up again.”
On Friday morning, an Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian attacker in the northern West Bank settlement of Dorot Illit, the army said.
Occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War, the West Bank is home to hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers who live in state-sanctioned settlements that are considered illegal under international law.
“A terrorist armed with knives and explosive devices arrived in the area of Dorot Illit” before the settlers spotted the assailant, opened fire and “neutralized” him, the army said, later confirming that he had been killed.
The Palestinian health ministry identified him as 21-year-old Abd al-Karim al-Sheikh.
On Friday, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya. The health ministry identified him as 16-year-old Amir Odeh.
The Israeli military said they “threw petrol bombs at the troops from close range”, and the soldiers “responded by opening fire”.
‘Disrespectful behavior’
A day after the shooting in Tel Aviv, Israeli police said they had arrested two Arab Israelis suspected of helping the gunman, 23-year-old Mutaz Khawaja.
One of those injured in the attack remains in critical condition, said the hospital where he was treated.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he had ordered the destruction of the Tel Aviv attacker’s home immediately in Nilin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The demolition follows a longstanding policy of punishing the families of Palestinians who kill Israelis.
The European Union condemned the shooting in Tel Aviv, saying that “this senseless act shows once again how important it is to end the cycle of violence and de-escalate the situation”.
At a rally Friday in the Gaza Strip, Hamas official Mushir al-Masri, whose group rules the region, praised Israel’s “quick response in the heart of Tel Aviv to avenge the crimes” of Jenin, a West Bank city that has been the scene of repeated violence. back.
Austin held talks in Israel hours after three suspected Palestinian militants were killed in the West Bank and as protesters rallied against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
The violence has increased over the past year, but has worsened in the West Bank under the government of Netanyahu who took office in December, a coalition with ultra-Orthodox and far-right Jewish allies.
Netanyahu’s government, which is on trial for corruption, has promised to continue West Bank settlement expansion.
Peace talks stalled
About 230,000 Israelis live in annexed east Jerusalem, along with at least 360,000 Palestinians who want to make the sector the future capital of the state.
But Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have stalled since 2014.
Austin said that the US commitment to Israel’s security is “iron-clad”.
But the US remains “firmly opposed to any actions that may cause insecurity, including settlement expansion and inflammatory rhetoric,” he said, adding: “We are particularly troubled by settler violence against Palestinians.”
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 78 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.
Twelve Israeli civilians, including three children, and one policeman, as well as one Ukrainian civilian have been killed at the same time, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.