An Israeli soldier was shot dead by Palestinians in an attack in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, in the second death of a member of the Israeli security forces in a week and as part of a sharp uptick in violence in the area.
“An Israeli Army soldier was killed in a shooting attack near the Shavei Shomron community,” a military spokesman announced, specifying that “two attackers arrived in a vehicle in an area adjacent to the Shavei Shomron community and opened fire on Israeli soldiers who were carrying out security operations in the area”.
Today’s attack was claimed by a Palestinian armed group that operates in the Old City of Nablus and whose militiamen, mostly young people with different political affiliations, have committed other similar acts in recent weeks and have clashed on multiple occasions with the Israeli Army.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz sent his condolences to the family of the deceased soldier and stressed that the Army would continue and intensify its operations in West Bank territory to “guarantee the security of Israeli citizens.”
The death today of this Israeli soldier follows the death, on the 8th, on Saturday, of an 18-year-old female soldier in a Palestinian attack on occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli forces have since been operating to capture the attacker and have established a forced closure of the area where the incident took place.
On the Palestinian side, there are already 115 deaths in violent incidents or armed clashes with security forces or Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank in 2022, which is already the most violent year in the region since the so-called Intifada of knives in 2015.
Israel’s security forces intensified their raids and “anti-terrorist operations” in the West Bank seven months ago in response to a wave of five attacks between March and April on Israeli soil in which 18 people were killed, which in turn has led to an increase in of violent attacks by armed Palestinian youth.
