A woman was killed and a man seriously injured by bullets on Monday, August 21, in the occupied West Bank, amid an outbreak of violence.

The attack “was perpetrated against a vehicle on Route 60, near the city of Hebron, against civilians driving through the area,” the IDF said in a statement, citing two injured civilians.

According to local authorities, the victim who died was named Batsheva Nigri. She is a 40-year-old Israeli, teacher and mother of three, who lived in the settlement of Beit Hagai, south of Hebron. One of his daughters, who was in the car, was not injured. Batsheva Nigri will be buried Monday evening at the Kfar Etzion cemetery in the West Bank.

Seriously injured, the 39-year-old driver was taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba (south), Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said.

Without claiming responsibility for the attack, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in a statement hailed “a heroic act” and called it a “normal response to the crimes of the occupation”. The Israeli army said it had blocked roads in the area and launched a search for the “suspects” who opened fire on the vehicle.

Six injured in clashes in Beita

“We will catch the assassins, as we have always done (…). They will pay for their crimes as well as those who support them,” promised Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene.

Nearly three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967. About 490,000 Jewish settlers also live there in settlements considered illegal under international law.

Six people were also injured Monday, August 21 “by live ammunition”, during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in Beita, in the northern occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. . One victim, shot in the head, is in “critical condition”, he added.

Separately, eight Palestinians, including a journalist, were injured by Israeli forces near the fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, during a demonstration in support of “the resistance in the West Bank”, Hamas reports. , who controls the enclave.

On Saturday August 19, two Israelis, a 60-year-old father and his 28-year-old son, were killed at a car wash in Huwara, West Bank, prompting a hunt for man.

In April, several thousand Israelis demonstrated to demand the legalization of the settlement of Evyatar, near Beita.

At least 218 Palestinians and 31 Israelis have been killed since the start of the year in the Middle East, according to an Agence France-Presse tally compiled from official sources. A Ukrainian and an Italian also died there.