Israeli killed by Palestinian gunfire in occupied West Bank

An Israeli settler was killed on Tuesday (May 30th) by Palestinian fire near a settlement in the northern occupied West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. "The injured man arrived in critical condition and we had to declare him dead despite the efforts of medical staff," Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera, central Israel, said, without identifying him.

The Israeli army had earlier reported an attack near the settlement of Hermesh and that an Israeli civilian had been shot and wounded. The Shomron Regional Council, which manages settlements in the northern West Bank, said the Israeli lived in the settlement of Hermesh, located near the Palestinian city of Jenin. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, said in a statement that fighters from the group had "opened fire on a vehicle carrying a settler" on the road leading to Hermesh, "directly wounding him." Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said security forces were searching for the "terrorists responsible for the attack."

See alsoWest Bank settlers cling to their hills

Nearly three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967. About 490,000 Israelis also live there in settlements deemed illegal by the UN under international law. Since the beginning of the year, at least 155 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources. These statistics include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, the majority of whom are civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.