Palestinian fugitive killed after firing shots at West Bank settlement
A Palestinian on the run after perpetrating a deadly attack against Israeli forces was killed Wednesday in the occupied West Bank after he shot at Israelis on the edge of a settlement, officials said.
The alleged attacker, identified by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid as Udai Tamimi, had been sought by Israeli security forces since the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Israeli soldier earlier this month at a checkpoint at the entrance to the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem.
The 10-day search for the fugitive had resulted in clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the camp, while also severely impeding daily life for Palestinians there.
He was killed on Wednesday after what Israeli police described as a gun attack against Israelis at the entrance to a West Bank settlement.
The attacker "fired at the entrance of Maale Adumim (settlement) towards security guards... wounding one of them in the hand before being neutralised by the other guards," Israeli police said in a statement.
An AFP photographer saw the body of the alleged assailant on the ground, surrounded by police officers.
The Magen David Adom, Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross, said it treated "a man in his twenties with an injured hand" who was then taken to a Jerusalem hospital.
Maale Adumim is one of the biggest Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Premier Lapid congratulated Israeli security forces "for neutralising the terrorist Udai Tamimi as he attempted to carry out another attack" after the Shuafat shooting that killed soldier Noa Lazar.
Violence has surged in recent months in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, amid near daily West Bank raids by Israeli forces and an uptick in attacks on troops.
More than 100 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed since the start of the year, the heaviest toll in the West Bank for nearly seven years, according to the United Nations.
The expansion of military operations in Jenin and elsewhere in the West Bank followed deadly attacks on Israelis earlier this year.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.
Around 475,000 Israelis now live in settlements across the territory, which are considered illegal by most of the international community.
They live alongside some 2.8 million Palestinians, who in different areas of the West Bank are subject to Israeli military rule or live under limited Palestinian governance.
