Two members of Israel’s security forces were wounded in a shooting attack near the Oz veGaon Nature Reserve, located between the Gush Etzion Junction and Migdal Oz in Judea, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.
The victims, both of them officers of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), were lightly and seriously wounded, respectively. They were taken to the hospital for treatment, the IDF said.
One of the officers returned fire, killing the assailant. The attacker was identified as Ziad al-Hamran, 30, from Jenin in northern Samaria.
Gush Etzion Regional Council head Yaron Rosenthal said that Israel was in the midst of “a campaign of the Zionist movement against the Arab enemy that is being waged in all parts of the country.
“We have been in Gush Etzion, on the frontlines of the State of Israel for close to a century. Our grip on this ‘good mountain’ will continue to deepen. This is our true answer to murderous terrorism,” he said, wishing “a full recovery for those injured in the attack.”
There was a terrorist shooting attack moments ago by Gush Etzion.
— Documenting Israel (@DocumentIsrael) March 19, 2024
2 Israeli security forces were shot and injured. The terrorist was shot. pic.twitter.com/6MqkHQHyMO
The Palestinian terrorist campaign against Israel has continued to escalate in the five months since Hamas started a war with its murderous rampage across the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7.
On Saturday, Israeli forces killed a Hebron imam after he opened fire on the city’s Jewish neighborhood with an automatic rifle. No Israeli casualties were reported.
Mahmoud Nofal was captured on video as he fired towards the Jewish neighborhood from a cemetery in the Abu Sanina quarter.
On Thursday, a terrorist killed Israeli soldier Uri Moyal at a gas station near Beit Kama in the northern Negev.
The terrorist, Fadi Abu Latif, 22, was born in the Gaza Strip and lived there till the age of 18. He was granted Israeli citizenship in 2019 after getting married and was a resident of the Negev Bedouin city of Rahat.
Also last week, a Palestinian terrorist infiltrated the hilltop community of Givat Ronen near Nablus in central Samaria and attempted to stab a Jewish resident.
The terrorist reportedly pursued a resident and managed to get within 220 feet of the outpost’s playground before he was scared off by a resident’s dog.
