AFP
New violence in the West Bank in the aftermath of an attack in Israel
Tensions remain high Friday in the occupied West Bank after a Palestinian suspected of wanting to carry out an attack was killed by an Israeli settler, the day after a Palestinian attack which left three wounded in Tel Aviv. “Early this morning, a terrorist armed with knives and explosive devices arrived in the area of (the colony of) Dorot Illit. The owner of the land spotted the terrorist and shot him,” an army statement said. AFP, an army spokesman said the assailant was dead. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said it had been informed of the death of a 21-year-old Palestinian, Abdelkarim Badia al-Sheikh, killed “after a settler shot him” near Qalqilyah, a Palestinian town near Dorot Illit. The army also announced on Friday that it had arrested two members of the family of the Palestinian who carried out the attack with a weapon. Thursday evening in Tel Aviv, injuring three men aged 32, 34 and 36. One of them remains in critical condition on Friday, according to the hospital where he was admitted. Police said they arrested two Israeli Arab residents suspected of having transported the assailant, Motaz Khawaja, 23, a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. He opened fire on Thursday around 8:40 p.m. (6:40 p.m. GMT) on the first evening of the Israeli weekend on Dizengoff Avenue, popular with night owls, in the center of Tel Aviv, before being shot dead by police. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he had given the order to “act immediately to destroy the terrorist’s house” in Nilin (a town northwest of of Ramallah, in the center of the West Bank), where Israeli forces went in the night, in order to make surveys for this destruction. – “Defuse the situation” – The European Union (EU) called ” all parties to exercise restraint” after “the terrorist attack in Te l-Aviv”. “This senseless act demonstrates once again how urgent it is to put an end to the cycle of violence and to defuse the situation,” said the spokesman for the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell. Hamas did not claim responsibility. attack but he called Khawaja a “heroic martyr” and presented the “operation” as a “personal initiative”. organization, welcomed this “prompt response in the heart of Tel Aviv aimed at avenging the crime of the occupation (Israel, editor’s note) in Jenin”, a city in the West Bank the scene of recurring violence. Six Palestinians, including the author of an anti-Israeli attack, were killed there on Tuesday during an Israeli military raid. The Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian armed group, promised that “the resistance would continue as long as the aggression of the occupation (Israel, editor’s note) continued “, according to one of its leaders in Gaza, Khaled el-Batsh.- “Particularly t concerned” -Also Thursday evening, in Betar Illit, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank southwest of Jerusalem, the Israeli army said that deminers had neutralized a suspicious package discovered on board a bus. Visiting Israel in During a tour of the Middle East, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the United States was “particularly concerned” about recent settler abuses against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank since 1967 by Israel.M. Austin also insisted on the need for “de-escalation” and “to lower tensions and restore calm, especially before the Passover (early April) and Ramadan holidays”, which are due to begin at the end of March. Upon arrival, three armed Palestinians, including two Islamic Jihad fighters, had been killed during an Israeli military operation in the occupied northern West Bank. Islamic Jihad and Hamas have promised to avenge these deaths. Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 77 Palestinians (including members of armed groups and civilians, including minors), 12 civilians (including three minors) and an Israeli policeman, as well as a Ukrainian, according to an AFP count made from official Israeli and Palestinian sources. alv-cgo/mj/bfi
