- Police said the gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons at several vehicles.
- The incident occurred near the settlement of Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
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One person was killed and seven others wounded by gunmen who opened fire in the West Bank today, Israeli police said.
The three gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on several vehicles near a Jewish settlement before the trio were “neutralized”, police said.
Police called the incident a “terrorist attack.”
The incident occurred near the Maale Adumim settlement, east of Jerusalem, police said, adding that the attackers had arrived in a vehicle.
“The three terrorists… got out of their vehicle and began shooting with automatic weapons at vehicles that were stopped in a traffic jam on the road to Jerusalem,” the force said in a statement.
‘Two terrorists were neutralized on the spot. In the searches carried out at the site, another terrorist who tried to escape was located and was also neutralized.”
Medics evacuated eight people with varying degrees of injuries from the scene, police said, and reports indicated that one had died.
Police said the attackers took advantage of slow morning traffic around 7:30 a.m. on the main road east of Jerusalem and opened fire with automatic weapons on cars waiting near a checkpoint.
Footage of what happened next showed Israeli security forces standing around several covered bodies lying on the road, surrounded by stopped vehicles.
Israeli security forces examine the scene of a shooting attack near the Maale Adumim settlement in the West Bank, Thursday, February 22, 2024.
Thursday’s attack came after Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s War Cabinet, said Wednesday night that new attempts are being made to reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that could stop the war in Loop.
But unless Hamas agrees to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, he said, Israel will launch a ground offensive against the populous southern city of Rafah during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israel’s war in Gaza has forced about 80 percent of the population of 2.3 million to flee their homes. Most followed Israeli orders to flee south and around 1.5 million are crammed into Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
About a quarter of the 130 captives still detained are believed to be dead. In response, Israel has razed much of the Palestinian territory.
The Gaza Health Ministry estimates that more than 29,000 Palestinians have died.
This is a breaking news history. More to continue…