Young boy killed, several bus passengers wounded in West Bank terror shooting
A young boy was fatally shot and several people wounded in a terror attack targeting a Jerusalem-bound bus in the West Bank late Wednesday night.
The 10-year-old child was brought in critical condition to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in nearby Jerusalem, where doctors declared his death early Thursday following intensive efforts to save him. He was later named as Yehoshua Aharon Tuvia Simha of the Beitar Illit settlement — where the bus had departed from.
Three others were hurt in the shooting: a woman who suffered moderate wounds and two other people who were lightly hurt.
The bus was shot up by the gunman at a junction by the Palestinian town of al-Khader, the Israel Defense Forces said, before proceeding with the wounded to the Tunnels Checkpoint.
The terrorist remains at large. The IDF announced troops were setting up roadblocks while encircling Bethlehem as part of the manhunt.
A video clip filmed shortly after the shooting showed passengers fleeing the bus after it arrived at the checkpoint, as security forces there rushed toward the vehicle amid the sound of gunfire. It was not clear from the footage where all the shots emanated from.
The attack came after three Israelis were lightly injured by gunfire the previous night while visiting Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian city of Nablus without coordinating with the military, and also followed a car-ramming attack in the southern West Bank over the weekend in which a soldier was seriously wounded.
Violence has risen sharply in the West Bank since the Gaza war started on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Since then, 42 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with operatives in the West Bank amid a major counterterrorism offensive that has been accompanied by sharp restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Israeli troops have arrested some 5,250 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank as part of the post-October 7 military operations, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, some 800 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in the same span of time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
Source » timesofisrael.com
