JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police opened fire on Sunday at a pair of suspected attackers who rammed their car into a West Bank checkpoint, resulting in the fatal shooting of a young Palestinian girl in an adjacent vehicle. The two suspects were also shot, while a young police officer was lightly hurt. The incident occurred just northwest of Jerusalem near the Palestinian village of Biddu.
The unsettling clash came just hours after a string of deadly violence in the occupied territory, which has seen an uptick in unrest since Israel’s war against Hamas began on Oct. 7. The surge in deadly military raids and increased restrictions on Palestinian residents across the West Bank during the Israel-Hamas war has led to a spike in violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the territory, according to the United Nations.
Earlier on Sunday, a man driving a car with Israeli license plates was fatally shot at a busy intersection in the West Bank, hours after a violent confrontation elsewhere left seven Palestinians and a border policewoman dead. The victim in the drive-by shooting was later identified as a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem. The assailants presumably mistook him for an Israeli because of the license plates.
The Israeli army reported that security forces were actively searching for the shooter and found an abandoned car that was likely used in the attack. In a separate incident, a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle of the paramilitary border police, killing a policewoman and wounding three others. Israeli forces then killed seven Palestinians in an airstrike, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The latest events add to the rising death toll, with the Palestinian Health Ministry reporting that Israeli forces have killed 330 Palestinians in the West Bank since Hamas’ cross-border attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Most of the Palestinians were killed during shootouts that began during operations to arrest Palestinian gunmen. The ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants continues to escalate, with no immediate signs of resolution.