As the principals were in Washington for the re-launch of Israeli-Palestinian direct talks, a third nighttime attack on Israeli settlers driving in the West Bank occurred at around 9pm on Thursday night, in the northern West Bank near the large settement of Ariel. A 12-year-old girl was moderately wounded by stone-throwing when the car in which she was riding was targetted.
Around 11 pm on Wednesday night, at Rimonim Junction [Israeli place name], east of Ramallah, in the central West Bank, a car was shot at, and the male driver was wounded by gunshots fired from another vehicle in a “drive-by” shooting. The man’s wife, riding as a passenger, was injured when the car overturned.
At around 7:30 pm on Tuesday night, as we have already reported here, a married couple were shot and killed, as were two passengers riding with them to their homes in a settlement near Hebron in the southern West Bank. When the Magen David Adom rescue service arrived on the scene, one of the medical workers discovered that his wife — one of the two passengers who had been given a ride in the targetted car — was among the dead. The car was attacked by gunfire from another vehicle, and the assailants then stopped and returned to finish off the wounded victims at close range.
Haaretz reported that hours after the first attack on Tuesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu “urged settlers in the West Bank to exhibit restraint and respect the rule of law in Israel in the wake of a deadly shooting attack near Hebron”. This is reported here.
However, YNet reported that “After learning that one of settlers killed in Tuesday’s deadly shooting attack had his gun license revoked, [Israel’s] interior minister determines West Bank Jews will be given permits without police authorization. ‘We won’t allow deaths as a result of bureaucracy,’ he says … In the aftermath of Tuesday’s deadly shooting attack near Hebron, Interior Minister Eli Yishai has instructed Population and Immigration Administration head Amnon Ben-Ami to ease restrictions on the purchase of firearms by Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Yishai said Wednesday he had decided to change the gun control policy after learning that one of the victims of the attack reportedly had his gun license revoked, and was therefore not carrying a weapon at the time terrorists opened fire. According to the new directive, gun licenses will be issued without police authorization based solely on the professional opinion of Firearms Division personnel. Minister Yishai said that a situation whereby the State of Israel ‘prevents its citizens from protecting themselves’ is ‘absurd’. The new policy also applies to Israelis who work in the West Bank. ‘Due to the launching of direct talks (between Israel and the Palestinians), we can already see the mass murderers coming out of their murder nests to kill Jews’, the minister told Ynet. ‘We won’t allow deaths as a result of bureaucracy. It is our duty to help the residents maintain their basic right to protect their own lives. We must be prepared for a complex period as far as security is concerned’, he said”… This is reported here.