The Israeli military is hunting for a terrorist who shot and killed Tzeela Gez and injured her husband, as the Israeli couple drove to the delivery room near the small community of Bruchin, in Samaria.
Gez’s baby was delivered in hospital, Ynet reported. The infant is listed in serious but stable condition. The Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital said its neontal unit at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center “fought all night for his life.”
The mother was pronounced dead on Thursday morning.
“I am deeply shocked by the horrific attack in Samaria, targeting a heavily pregnant woman and her husband as they were on their way to the delivery room,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated.
“This vile act precisely reflects the difference between us—those who cherish and bring life—and the despicable terrorists whose very purpose is to kill us and cut lives short,” the prime minister said.
“I trust that our security forces, as in previous cases, will swiftly reach the murderers and hold them and anyone who aided them accountable,” Netanyahu said.
Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, stated that “the murder of Tzeela Gez, on her way to give birth at the hospital, is a spine-chilling, horrific act of terror that shakes us to the core.”
“At the very moment life was about to begin, life was taken in the most brutal way,” Herzog said. “My heart goes out to her grieving family and all her loved ones who are in deep shock. We’re all praying now for the baby’s health and for the recovery of her injured husband, Hananel.”
“Terror won’t break the Israeli spirit,” the Israeli president added. “We will relentlessly track down terror wherever it hides.”
The Yesha Council stated in Hebrew that it is “shocked and saddened by the terrible attack in Samaria and embrace the family at this difficult time.”
“The only way to prevent such serious attacks is to turn the city centers and villages, from which the murderers emerge, into ruins,” the council said. “We have been warning about this for a long time.”
“If the army continues to invest enormous efforts to capture a lone terrorist or a weapons cache and does not change the security perception on the ground, the State of Israel and its citizens will continue to be in danger,” the council added. “We are supporting the Minister of Defense in quickly changing the security perception.”
The Magen David Adom emergency service stated that around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, its emergency medical technicians and paramedics were treating a woman in her 30s in critical condition. They evacuated a man, variously reported to be in his 30s or 40s, in serious condition with gunshot wounds to the hospital, Magen David Adom said.
The emergency service said that the shooting took place on route 446, between Bruchin and Peduel. The area is some 10 miles east of Petah Tikva and about the same distance northeast of Ben Gurion Airport.
According to an English translation of an Arabic post, the Hamas terror group lauded the shooting, which it called “heroic.”
צפו בפעילות כוחות צה״ל בזירת הפיגוע בסמוך לברוכין שבחטיבת אפרים >> pic.twitter.com/lDTrzBQSVx
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 14, 2025
