Palestinian shooter opens fire on car in occupied West Bank, injures three, including two girls | Wagon Radio 720

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – A Palestinian shooter opened fire on a car in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, injuring three people, including two girls, before fleeing, Israeli officials said.

The bloodshed is the latest in a chain of unrelenting violence to ravage the region, adding to the death toll and triggering the worst fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades. .

The Israeli military said the shooter opened fire on the vehicle from a passing vehicle. Israeli rescue service MDA said three people were injured, including a 35-year-old man with gunshot wounds, who were in critical but stable condition. Two girls aged 9 and 14 suffered minor injuries from flying debris.

The military said its forces were searching for the attackers.

Fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank intensified early last year when Israel launched near-nightly raids into the Palestinian area of ​​the West Bank in response to a series of Palestinian attacks against Israel.

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli artillery shelling in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2023, according to an Associated Press tally.

Israeli officials say most of those killed were militants, but they also killed young people who were stone-throwing protesters and people who were not involved in the clashes.

During this time, at least 26 people were killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Israel says the raids are essential to dismantling militant networks and deterring future attacks. Palestinians see the violence as a natural response to 56 years of occupation, including intensified settlement construction by the Israeli government and increased violence by Jewish settlers.

Israel occupied the West Bank along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East War. Palestinians want these territories for the independence they wanted.