Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack by three attackers on a checkpoint separating Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, which left one Israeli soldier dead and three others injured.
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This attack was carried out “to avenge the blood of the martyrs of Gaza,” said the press release signed by “Qassam Brigades-West Bank” on the 41st day of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army announced in the afternoon that the 20-year-old soldier had succumbed to his injuries following the automatic weapons attack. Three other members of the security forces were injured. “The three attackers are dead,” a police spokesman said.
According to Israeli police, “three terrorists arriving by car from the West Bank shot at security forces.”
“Given the amount of ammunition, pistols and axes found in the car, it appears that the attackers were planning a major attack or massacre in Israel,” Israeli police chief Kobi Shabtai told reporters.
Israel is fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement seized power in 2007. The West Bank is run by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7th. According to authorities, around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed on the Israeli side on the day of the attack.
In retaliation, Israel relentlessly shelled the Gaza Strip, which was under a near-total siege. According to the Hamas government, Israeli bombings have claimed at least 11,500 lives, mostly civilians, including 4,710 children.
In the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, more than 190 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The Israeli army is increasing its raids and incursions there and says it is responding to a “significant increase in terrorist attacks” in the West Bank with “more than 550 attempted attacks since the start of the war.”