The Israeli military announced Friday, October 23, that its forces killed two Palestinians identified as assailants following an automatic-weapons attack in the southern occupied West Bank that wounded five people, according to emergency services.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, reported five casualties, two of them in critical condition. Images distributed by rescue workers showed a lifeless body lying on the ground near a gas station while Israeli soldiers patrolled the area.
Netanyahu Suspends Likud Campaign Events
In response to the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the suspension of all campaign events for his Likud party, the party said in a statement. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a leading figure of the far right, separately called for the Palestinian Authority to be “dismantled” in reaction to the shooting.
The attack comes just days before Israelis head to the polls, with voters holding sharply divergent expectations, and it immediately reshaped the closing stretch of the campaign.
Violence Has Surged Since October 2023
Since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas in Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, violence has surged in the West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
- At least 1,113 Palestinians have been killed there since October 2023, mostly by Israeli soldiers, according to an AFP count based on figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
- The United Nations has recorded 37 of those killed by settlers.
- According to Israeli figures, at least 49 Israelis have been killed over the same period, the majority in Palestinian attacks but also during Israeli military operations.
The shooting underscores the volatility of the security situation in the West Bank, where tensions have remained high throughout the election campaign and where the Israeli military has maintained a heavy presence in recent months.
