Police said that “two terrorists” had been “neutralized” after the attack which occurred near the settlement of Maale Adumim, between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.
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They opened fire with automatic weapons on vehicles caught in a traffic jam on a highway between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Three men carried out an attack near the Jewish settlement of Maale Adoumim, in the occupied West Bank, leaving one dead and eight injured, Israeli police announced on Thursday February 22.
A pregnant 23-year-old woman is in critical condition, said Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, and a spokesperson for Shaare Tzedek hospital.
“The three terrorists… got out of their vehicle and began shooting with automatic weapons at vehicles that were in a traffic jam on the road towards Jerusalem,” added the police. “Two terrorists were neutralized on the spot. Searches carried out at the scene made it possible to locate another terrorist who was trying to escape and who was also neutralized”, she added. Significant reinforcements have been called to this sector.
Increasing violence
According to the Shin Bet, the Israeli domestic intelligence service, the attackers are three young Palestinian adults, aged between 26 and 31, from the Bethlehem sector.
Violence in the West Bank, already on the rise before the start of the Gaza war on October 7 between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, has only intensified since. The attack comes days after two people were shot and killed in southern Israel, near the town of Kiryat Malakhi.