At least eight people were wounded, three of them seriously, when a Hamas terrorist opened fire at a civilian bus near the West Bank settlement of Ariel on Friday. The assailant was shot dead by security forces.
According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, four people were hit by gunfire, including three in serious condition and one in moderate condition. Another four people were lightly wounded by broken glass, MDA said.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, claimed responsibility for the shooting, naming the gunman as Samir Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, 46, from the village of Einabus near Nablus. Hussein was a member of the Brigades, Hamas said.
The IDF believes the terrorist did not act alone, and that other accomplices may have provided the M-16 assault rifle and vehicle with which he carried out the attack.
However, a military source said the army had ruled out the possibility of a second terrorist after scanning the area around the Gitai Avisar Junction, where the attack took place.
According to an initial IDF probe, Hussein had set out from the Nablus area, driving from the Tapuah Junction to Gitai Avisar — a route with no internal checkpoints. Hussein stopped his car on the side of the road, about 150 meters away from a bus stop, and opened fire at the bus while approaching it on foot, the army said.
IDF troops stationed in the area returned fire, killing him shortly after the attack began, according to the probe.
The West Bank, which is controlled by Israeli security forces, has seen a sharp rise in violence since the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
The onslaught was followed by sharp restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank and wide-scale counterterrorism operations there. On Wednesday, the Shin Bet said it thwarted an arms shipment to the West Bank by Iran, Hamas’s benefactor.
Since the Hamas onslaught, Israeli troops have arrested some 5,250 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.
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