An Israeli man was shot and seriously wounded in a terror attack while driving through the town of Huwara in the northern West Bank on Sunday, the military and doctors said.
According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, the man, in his 30s, was seriously injured after suffering a head injury in the attack on the Route 60 highway.
Footage from the scene showed a wind-up view of the bullet-riddled car.
A woman in the car, identified as his wife, was also taken to hospital with traumatic shock. She was not hit by the gunfire, the MDA said.
Apparently, the gunman dropped the “Carlo” submachine gun used in the attack and fled on foot, according to local officials.
The Israel Defense Forces said they were investigating the suspected terror attack and had launched a manhunt for the shooter.
A ‘Carlo’ sub-machine gun apparently used by a Palestinian terrorist during a shooting attack in the West Bank town of Huwara, March 19, 2023. (Courtesy)
The attack came just three weeks after two Israeli brothers were shot dead in a terror attack while driving through Huwara. After that attack, the settlers rioted in the town, setting houses and cars on fire. One Palestinian shot dead.
Huwara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank because it is the only Palestinian town that Israelis regularly travel through to reach settlements.
There are plans to build a bypass road for settlers so they don’t have to travel through Huwara, but construction work has stopped.
The attack came earlier, on February 26, when Israeli, Palestinian, American, Egyptian and Jordanian officials gathered in Aqaba for a meeting aimed at helping foster regional calm. The shooting on Sunday came on the day of a similar gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh, ahead of the sensitive period of Ramadan, which begins at the end of this week.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high for the past year, with the IDF conducting almost nightly raids on the West Bank amid a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Palestine. Those tensions have escalated in recent weeks, with a cycle of deadly Israeli raids and Palestinian attacks, as well as an uptick in settler violence.
Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel and the West Bank in recent months have left 14 Israelis dead and many others injured.
At least 85 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, most of them in attacks or during clashes with security forces, although some were unrelated civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated.
