4 Israelis and 2 Palestinians Injured in Riots Following West Bank Murder

Image by Getty Images

An Israeli police officer, three Jewish settlers and two Palestinians were injured in riots and clashes in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

A Palestinian rioter hit the officer from the Israel Police’s Border Police division in his head on Friday, Army Radio reported, during confrontations near the Lions’ Gate in Jerusalem.

Earlier on Friday, two Israelis sustained minor injuries when Palestinians hurled stones at them near the West Bank settlement of Ofra. Separately, a young Israeli woman was lightly wounded in a similar incident at the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.

According to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, a Palestinian man was injured on Friday as settlers opened fire at a junction south of Bethlehem. Walid Khalid Qawwar, 35, from the town of Aida was moderately injured, Ma’an reported based on a paramedic’s account.

The incidents occurred after the slaying on Thursday evening of two Israelis, Na’ama and Eitam Henkin, near Itamar in the West Bank. Thousands attended their funeral, including Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

The president said settlement construction in the West Bank would continue. “We didn’t build because of terror, and we won’t stop building because of it,” he remarked.

Before the killings, a Palestinian man identified by Ma’an as Samih Ali Abed Sabah, 28, was injured in the thigh from shots fired at him by Border Police officers near the West Bank village of Tuqu. He sustained minor to moderate injuries.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered the deployment of four infantry battalions around West Bank Jewish sites following the killings.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO