Human Rights Voices

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Israeli Father and Son Shot Dead in West Bank Terror Attack

Palestinian Authority/Gaza, November 13, 2015

Original source

The Times of Israel

An Israeli man and his teenage son were killed and five others wounded Friday when a Palestinian fired on their vehicle south of the West Bank city of Hebron.

Just before 3 p.m. on Friday, the Magen David Adom rescue service received a report of gunshots fired at a car near Otniel Junction in the southern West Bank.

Paramedics arrived to find two Israelis critically injured and a third lightly hurt. They pronounced the two who had been critically hurt dead at the scene.

The two were later identified as a man in his 40s and a youth of about 18. Initial reports mistakenly said the fatalities were a couple in their 50s. The JNS news agency said that the man had been driving with five relatives to a family event in the southern town of Meitar when the attack happened.

The lightly injured victim, a 16-year-old boy, was taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba for treatment. Four others were also sent to Soroka for treatment for shock. Channel 2 television said that three of those treated for shock were children.

According to an initial report, a Palestinian terrorist exited his vehicle and fired on the Israeli car, then fled the scene. IDF troops were searching the area for the suspect, the army said.

Noam Bar, a senior Magen David Adom paramedic, said: "When we arrived at the scene we saw seven passengers outside the vehicle, two of them - a man of about 40 and a youth of about 18 - lying unconscious with bullet wounds to the upper body. They displayed no signs of life and we were forced to pronounce them dead at the scene. In addition, we administered first aid treatment and evacuated to Soroka hospital a youth of about 16 with light bullet wounds to his limbs and four people suffering from shock."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his condolences following the attack, and vowed that Israel would hunt down those responsible for the killings.

"We will get to these heinous murderers and we will bring them to justice as we have done in the past," the prime minister said, warning that Israel would continue to fight terror wherever necessary.

Members of Hebron Regional Council called on the government use every means at their disposal in order to halt the wave of terror, Channel 2 said. They also accused the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service of failing to help the dead and wounded.

MK Avigdor Liberman, the hawkish head of the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party, said the attack was due to failed government policy of containment, Channel 2 reported.

The Walla website said that Hamas, which has a minor foothold in the West Bank but has been agitating for an increase in attacks on Israelis by West Bank Palestinians, welcomed the attack as a "quality development in the intifada."

The attack brings to 15 the number of Israelis killed in the current cycle of violence, which flared up during the Jewish New Year holiday in September. Hundreds of Israelis have also been wounded in the car-ramming, shooting and knife attacks that have struck primarily in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Dozens of Palestinians have also been killed or injured, the vast majority while carrying out attacks or attempted attacks or in clashes with Israeli security forces.