An Israeli man was shot and seriously wounded in a terror attack while driving through the northern West Bank town of Huwara on Sunday, the military and medics said.
According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, the man, in his 30s, was seriously hurt after sustaining a head injury in the attack on the Route 60 highway.
Footage from the scene showed the windshield of the car riddled with bullets.
A woman in the car, identified as his wife, was also being taken to a hospital suffering from traumatic shock. She was not hit by the gunfire, MDA said.
The gunman apparently dropped the makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun used in the attack and fled the scene on foot, according to local officials.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was investigating the suspected terror attack and had launched a manhunt for the shooter.
A makeshift ‘Carlo’ sub machinegun apparently used by a Palestinian terrorist during a shooting attack in the West Bank town of Huwara, March 19, 2023. (Courtesy)
The attack came exactly three weeks after two Israeli brothers were shot dead in a terror attack while driving through Huwara. In the wake of that attack, settlers staged a riot in the town, setting fire to homes and cars. One Palestinian was shot dead.
Huwara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank as it is just about the only Palestinian town one that Israelis regularly travel through in order to reach settlements.
There are plans to build a bypass road for settlers to avoid having to travel through Huwara, but the construction work has been stalled.
The earlier attack, on February 26, came as Israeli, Palestinian, American, Egyptian, and Jordanian officials convened in Aqaba for a meeting aimed to help foster regional calm. The shooting on Sunday came on the day of a similar meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, ahead of the sensitive Ramadan period, which begins at the end of this week.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high for the past year, with the IDF conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks. Those tensions have ramped up even further in recent weeks, which saw a cycle of deadly Israeli raids and Palestinian attacks, as well as an uptick in settler violence.
Palestinian terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank in recent months have left 14 Israelis dead and several more seriously hurt.
At least 85 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, though some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated.
Source Link: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-man-seriously-wounded-in-west-bank-shooting-attack/
