(Nablus) A second Israeli soldier was killed in less than a week on Tuesday in a new armed attack, this time in an area of the occupied West Bank the scene of an upsurge in violence.
Posted at 12:29 p.m.
“Two assailants driving in a vehicle approached the town of Shavei Shomron and opened fire on Israeli soldiers” who were carrying out “operations” in this area, the Israeli army said in a brief message, specifying that an injured soldier had succumbed to his injuries.
Shavei Shomron is an Israeli settlement of just over 1,000 inhabitants founded in the late 1970s and located near Nablus, a large city in the northern West Bank, the scene of clashes and Israeli operations in recent months.
In the wake of deadly anti-Israeli attacks in March and April, the army stepped up operations and arrests in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by the Jewish state since 1967, especially in the areas of Jenin and Nablus.
These Israeli raids, often interspersed with clashes with the Palestinian population, left more than a hundred dead on the Palestinian side, the heaviest toll in the West Bank for nearly seven years, according to the UN.
At the same time, in recent months, Nablus has seen the emergence of a new group of fighters called “the lion’s den”, in tribute to Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, a young fighter nicknamed the “lion of Nablus” and killed in August by the army. Israel, after having united hundreds, even thousands, of young Palestinians with its strong rhetoric.
On Tuesday, this group also claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against Israeli positions around Nablus.
“We will catch the terrorist and those who helped him. Counterterrorism operations will continue and intensify,” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Twitter of the deadly attack.
Tensions in Shuafat
The Israeli army has identified the slain soldier as Ido Baroukh, 21, the second soldier killed this week after Saturday night’s fatal attack on soldier Noa Lazar, 18, who was shot dead at the Chouafat checkpoint, a refugee camp Palestinians in East Jerusalem, an area occupied and annexed by Israel.
Since then, the Israeli army and police have been conducting a manhunt to try to find a 22-year-old Palestinian suspected of this attack, which also injured three people, including a 30-year-old Israeli who was seriously injured by a bullet in the head.
The Israeli security services notably surrounded the Shuafat refugee camp, the scene of clashes between young Palestinians and local forces, according to an AFP photographer on the spot.
“There is suffering in Chouafat. Sick or injured people are struggling to get out of the camp for treatment, the bakeries are empty, doctors and nurses are unable to access them,” Israeli Arab MP Ahmed Tibi told AFP on the spot.
“To get out of the camp, you have to queue in your car for three or four hours. It is collective punishment,” he added.