Palestinian trucker shot dead after killing Israeli soldier

On Thursday, a Palestinian truck driver rammed an Israeli soldier near a checkpoint on the border with the occupied West Bank, killing the victim. The driver was then pursued and shot dead, according to Israeli military and medical sources.

The West Bank, which has experienced rising violence in recent months amid a near decade-long impasse in U.S.-sponsored peacemaking efforts, was the scene of an incident only hours after Palestinians injured four Israeli soldiers in a roadside bombing there.

The military reported that a Palestinian truck driver, 41, who had a permit to operate in Israel, struck a group of soldiers who were not on duty on the Israeli side of the Maccabim crossing, killing one and injuring three others as well as a roadside vendor.

Security personnel shot the driver after pursuing him into the West Bank and stopping close to the Palestinian hamlet of Nilin, according to Israeli police.

The West Bank-based Islamist terrorist organisation Hamas, which has increased its attacks against Israel and the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority (PA), praised the strike but refrained from claiming responsibility for it.

Palestinians demand statehood in the West Bank among other places, but Israel’s right-wing administration, which supports Jewish colonisation of the region, rules out such a possibility. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are split between the PA and anti-coexistence groups like Hamas that are supported by Iran.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank city of Nablus, the Islamic Jihad movement claimed to have detonated a roadside bomb overnight in order to harm Israeli forces. According to the military, four troops were hurt while guarding Jewish pilgrims going to the biblical Joseph’s Tomb.

According to medical personnel, Israeli soldiers in Nablus deployed tear gas on roughly 30 Palestinians, one of whom was hit by live fire, another by a rubber bullet, and the remainder by tear gas.

(With agency inputs)