West Bank attack wounds 5 as Israel PM cancels events

Hebron – An attack in the occupied West Bank wounded at least five Israelis on Friday and touched off a shootout that ended with two suspected Palestinian assailants dead, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel political events days ahead of elections. An AFP journalist who witnessed the firefight saw two Palestinian men in casual attire and armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle exchanging fire with Israeli forces at a checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Hebron. The journalist reported that Israeli forces eventually shot and killed the attackers, their two lifeless bodies on the ground next to a petrol station as Israeli troops patrolled in all directions. The Israeli military said soldiers had rushed to the Judea Junction area, also known as the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint, after the early-morning shooting attack.

“IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers eliminated two terrorists and continue searches in the area,” it said in a statement. The initial shooting wounded five people, two of whom were in critical condition, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical rescue service. The Magen David Adom said one of the victims was a man in his 20s in “very serious condition” with gunshot wounds. Netanyahu, running for a new term in elections on Tuesday, called for all political meetings to be cancelled Friday due to the attack. Israeli National Security Minister and far-right firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been rising in the polls, called for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to be dismantled because of the attack. “The Palestinian Authority must be dismantled and demilitarized, and its terror infrastructure wiped out completely,” he said in a statement. No evidence suggests that the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian government in…