(JTA) — A gunman who witnesses said was wearing a T-shirt bearing the insignia of a Palestinian militant group established amid the recent rise of violence shot and killed two Israelis driving through a West Bank town.
The Israelis were driving Sunday through Hawara, a town near the northern West Bank of Nablus, reports said. The two were in their 20s, and the shots were fired from a passing car, Israel’s government run Kan broadcaster said.
Haaretz quoted local sources as saying that the shooter was wearing a shirt with the emblem of the Lion’s Den group of militants. The group was established last year in Nablus as Israel intensified deadly raids in the West Bank in the wake of a series of Palestinian stabbing attacks on Israelis inside the 1967 borders.
Violence between Israel and the Palestinians has increased in the last year, including since the election in November of a right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.
The killings Sunday bring to 13 the number of Israelis killed since Jan. 1, and dozens of Palestinians have been killed in the same period, including militants and civilians. Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip and is considered a terrorist group by both Israel and the United States, praised the attack.
The Israeli army closed off roads leading into Hawara and is searching for the shooter and checking security cameras from stores along the road, which serves as a thoroughfare for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank.
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