A 12-year-old boy was shot dead last night when a gunman opened fire on a bus in the West Bank, and three other people were wounded, according to the Israeli military.
The alleged terrorist attack occurred around 11:30 p.m. south of Jerusalem, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.
The boy, who was traveling home to see his family at the time, He was admitted to the hospital in life-threatening conditions.
Tragically, “after intensive resuscitation attempts,” the boy was pronounced dead, according to a statement from Hadassah Hospital west of Jerusalem.
The perpetrator is still at large and the Israeli military said its forces were pursuing the gunman and had set up roadblocks, surrounding an area near Bethlehem.
Violence in the West Bank was already rising before the war in Gaza broke out on October 7 last year and has increased since then, with frequent Israeli military incursions, Jewish settler violence and Palestinian street attacks against Israelis.
Israeli security forces patrol the site of a shooting attack near a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank north of Bethlehem, December 12, 2024.
The Israeli military said its forces were pursuing the gunman and had set up roadblocks.
It comes as Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues, with intense shelling of large areas of the Strip overnight killing at least 35 Palestinians, according to the WAFA news agency.
Children and women were among seven killed when a residential building on Gaza City’s al-Jalaa Street was bombed, WAFA said.
Another 15 people were killed in the bombing of a house where displaced people were sheltering, west of the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, the agency added.
In the western area of the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 13 Palestinians were killed and others wounded, according to WAFA, in an attack that affected people providing aid.
Earlier, doctors said at least 30 people were also injured in the Rafah attack, with several of them in critical condition.
In the nearby town of Khan Younis, another group of men tasked with securing aid shipments was hit by another Israeli airstrike that wounded several of them, medics said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.