Israeli forces were chasing the attacker behind an attack that killed a soldier at a checkpoint in east Jerusalem, authorities said Sunday, hours after two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army said a soldier was “killed as a result of serious injury in a gunshot attack” which police say took place at a checkpoint in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem near the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat.
Another Israeli was “seriously injured,” police said, and a third person, whose nationality was unspecified, was hit by “shrapnel” in the incident, according to emergency services group Magen David Adom (MADA), all of whom Gunshot victims said were in their 20s.
Police cordoned off the area near the checkpoint and dozens of officers were stationed at the entrance and exit of East Jerusalem, while the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics were being prevented from entering the refugee camp.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid described the shooting as a “severe” attack.
“My heart goes out to the wounded and their families tonight. Terror will not defeat us, we are strong even on this difficult evening,” he said in a statement.
– ‘Devastating Consequences’ –
Earlier on Saturday, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in an operation by Israeli forces in Jenin, the focal point of the northern city in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the killing of “two citizens by occupation (Israeli) shells in Jenin” when Israeli forces carried out an arrest there. Eleven others were also injured.
Those killed were identified by the Palestinian Ministry of Health as Ahmad Daraghmeh, 16, and Mahmoud as-Sous, 18. Islamic Jihad praised the teenagers as “its martyrs”.
Israel’s military said troops entered Jenin on Saturday to arrest a 25-year-old Palestinian man said to be a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group and suspected of shooting at troops in the area.
“During the activity, dozens of Palestinians hurled explosive devices and Molotov cocktails at IDF soldiers and shots were fired at them,” the army said in a statement, adding that soldiers fired at “the armed suspects.”
Saturday’s incident is the latest in a string of frequent and often fatal raids by the Israeli army on Palestinian militants that have killed dozens of Palestinian militants and civilians.
After the recent deaths in Jenin, the Palestinian Presidency called on Washington to “put serious pressure on Israel to end its all-out war against our Palestinian people.”
The Israeli action “will push things towards an explosion and a point of no return, which will have devastating consequences for everyone,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement released by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The agency also reported that Israeli forces fired directly at journalists during the Jenin raid.
Two reporters were injured on Wednesday while covering a military operation observed by an AFP journalist near the West Bank city of Nablus that left one Palestinian dead.
In March, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin.
– “Deterioration of the situation” –
Saturday’s violence in Jenin came a day after two other Palestinian teenagers were shot dead by Israeli forces – Adel Dawoud, 14, killed in the northern West Bank, and Mahdi Ladadweh, 17, killed near the city of Ramallah, according to the Health Ministry.
“I am alarmed by the deteriorating security situation, including the increase in armed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” Tor Wennesland, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said in a statement.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War, and some 475,000 Israelis now live in settlements across the territory that are considered illegal by most of the international community.
They live alongside some 2.8 million Palestinians who are subject to Israeli military rule or a limited Palestinian government in various areas of the West Bank.
