JERUSALEM (AP): An alleged Palestinian shooting attack in the northern occupied West Bank killed two women and seriously wounded another, Israeli medics said, the latest violence after Israeli warplanes struck southern Lebanon in a significant escalation.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said that two women in their 20s were killed and another woman in her 40s was seriously wounded near the settlement of Hamra in the Jordan Valley. The medics said they pulled the three unconscious women out of their car, which had apparently crashed after a Palestinian allegedly opened fire at it from a nearby vehicle. The Israeli military said security forces were searching for the attacker.
The shooting follows months of unusually heightened violence in the occupied West Bank and comes just hours after Israeli warplanes struck what the army described as Palestinian militant targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Violence has surged to record heights in the West Bank in recent months, with Palestinian health officials reporting the start of 2023 to be the most deadly for Palestinians in at least two decades.
Nearly 90 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the year, according to an AP tally. During that time, 16 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis — all but one of them civilians.
