Tel Aviv: A Palestinian man with Israeli citizenship carried out a spate of shootings in central Israel on Sunday, killing a military reservist and wounding five others before police killed the attacker, Israeli authorities said. The rampage unfolded near the West Bank boundary and prompted lockdowns as security forces searched for accomplices and answers, AP reported.
The shooting began at a gas station near Kokhav Yair, close to the Israeli boundary with the occupied West Bank, and spread to nearby towns and an area near the settlement of Salit inside the West Bank. Israeli police and the military said the attacker — identified as a man in his 20s from the Arab town of Taybeh who holds Israeli citizenship — opened fire at several locations.
A 55-year-old reservist was killed near Tzur Natan, and rescue service personnel reported five others wounded, two of them seriously. Police initially feared a coordinated series of attacks but later concluded a single gunman, assisted by an alleged accomplice who may have driven him, carried out the attacks. Authorities arrested t
he suspected accomplice after he tried to stab police with a glass bottle, officials said.
Lockdowns & Reactions
The violence forced local authorities to tell residents to remain at home and kept schoolchildren in lockdown for hours while security forces combed the area.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the officers who neutralized the attacker, and Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video standing beside what appeared to be a blurred image of the dead gunman.
“This is the end of every terrorist, this is how it should look,” Ben-Gvir said. His public posts, and a recent legislative effort he led to impose the death penalty on Palestinian attackers, have drawn criticism from other Israeli leaders, who fault his controversial displays.
Tensions, Strikes & Context
The attack came amid heightened tensions after recent settler violence and the killing of a Palestinian baby in the West Bank. It also follows the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault that killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, and Israel’s subsequent Gaza offensive.
The Gaza Health Ministry reports more than 72,000 Palestinians killed in that campaign; UN agencies and independent experts typically treat the ministry’s totals as a central source while noting limitations in casualty breakdowns.
On the same day as the shootings, Palestinian authorities said Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least nine people: five at a police point in Khan Younis and four in Gaza City, with additional wounded taken to hospitals.
Israel later closed crossings into Gaza amid what officials called a deteriorating security situation following missile launches from Iran.