Three Israelis were killed and several others injured on Tuesday (November 15th) in a stabbing and then a ramming attack near the Israeli settlement of Ariel in the northern occupied West Bank.
With our correspondent in Ramallah, Alice Froussard
According to local media and videos of the attack, the assailant, an 18-year-old Palestinian from the village of Hares, stabbed one of the settlement guards and then killed two Israelis, aged 35 and 40, in an attack with a knife in a service station, before taking the car and hitting another person, who succumbed to his injuries.
The assailant was immediately killed by the Israeli army, according to Palestinian sources. In recent hours, the army has carried out searches in the village where he is from, arresting three members of his family.
The incident comes amid ongoing talks for a new government in Israel, with two far-right Jewish supremacist figures, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, pleading for the army and police to do more use of force against the Palestinians. “ Terrorism will not last. We will do everything to eradicate it and restore the security of the citizens of the State of Israel said Itamar Ben Gvir.
wave of violence
This attack is above all part of a wave of more general violence. After a wave of attacks in Israel, the Israeli army has stepped up deadly raids in the occupied West Bank. Violence is almost daily, and since the beginning of the year, nearly 130 Palestinians have been killed by the army in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, making 2022, according to the Israeli organization B’Tselem, the most killer since 2006.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wrote on Twitter: I pray for the recovery of those injured in the devastating attack in Ariel and support the ongoing operation of the security forces “.
מתפלל לשלום הפצועים בפיגוע הקשה באריאל ומחזק את כוחות הביטחון שפוטעלי.
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) November 15, 2022
►Also read: West Bank: settler attacks on Palestinians picking olives