A Hamas-affiliated terrorist on Thursday opened fire near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, killing one Israeli, a day after Israeli forces withdrew from the largest military operation in the West Bank in two decades. The Palestinian attacker was shot and killed by Israeli forces, the army said.
The victim, who fought the attacker and prevented a potentially larger incident, is IDF soldier named Shilo Yosef Amir, a 22-year-old Givati Brigade soldier from Kibbutz Meirav in northern Israel.
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The shooting came on the heels of the Israeli withdrawal from the nearby Jenin refugee camp after a two-day offensive meant to crack down on Palestinian terrorists. The operation destroyed the camp's narrow roads and alleyways and killed 12 Palestinian terrorists. One Israeli soldier also was killed.
Video: Yoni Rikner
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a firebrand settler leader, lives in the area of the shooting. Smotrich also oversees planning of settlements in the West Bank.
The Hamas terrorist group claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying it was a "natural response" to the Jenin incursion. It said the 19-year-old attacker had targeted Smotrich's settlement.
"The enemy will know that its massacre in Jenin only increased our people's insistence on resistance and adherence to its approach until liberation," the group said. The army said that the shooter opened fire on Israeli forces that had stopped his vehicle for an inspection. The man drove away and was shot dead after a brief chase.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas praised the shooting as a "heroic act" and a "natural response" to the Israeli raid on Jenin.
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