JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers on Wednesday shot and killed a Palestinian militant who opened fire at them in the occupied West Bank.
The army said the gunman was traveling in a vehicle when he fired at a military post next to the settlement of Ofra.
Soldiers chased after the car and shot the man after he got out and fired at them, the army said. It released a photo of what it said was the rifle used by the attacker.
Palestinian officials identified the man as Mujahid Hamed, 32, a resident of the nearby village of Silwad.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a militant group loosely linked to President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, said Hamed was a member and confirmed the attack.
It said Hamed had spent 10 years in Israeli prisons and was on the run in recent days fearing arrest. In a video circulated on social media, his weeping mother said he had preferred to die over returning to prison.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making it the deadliest year since 2006.
The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Israel has been conducting daily arrest raids throughout the West Bank, in an operation prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people.
The military says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks, but the Palestinians say they entrench Israel’s open-ended occupation, now in its 56th year.
At least 31 people have died in Arab attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank this year, according to Israeli figures.
