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Israeli man killed and family members hurt as car fired on in West Bank Israeli man killed and family members hurt as car fired on in West Bank
(about 1 hour later)
An Israeli man was killed and his wife and one of their children injured when their car came under fire as it drove through the West Bank near the Palestinian city of Hebron – the scene of ongoing tensions between Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents. One Israeli was killed three others injured after their car was hit by gunfire as they travelled through the West Bank on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the car's occupants were members of the same family. The dead man, aged 40, was understood to be the father of the family while his pregnant wife, aged 28, and two children – one of them a nine-year old – were injured.
Israeli media said the woman was pregnant and several children were in the car. At least one man armed with an automatic weapon and apparently wearing a helmet opened fire on several cars travelling on route 35 near the city of Hebron, according to witness reports.
Israel TV's Channel 10 said the family was en route to Hebron for a seder, the ritual meal at the start of the Jewish Passover holiday. Several hundred settlers live in heavily guarded enclaves in Hebron. The family in the car that was hit was understood to be en route from their home in Modi'in - an Israeli town split across occupied Palestinian and Israeli territory – to visit the mother's family for the traditional meal that commences the Passover religious festival. The shooting was the second incident in the past two days on the West Bank.
Troops were reported to be searching for the assailants, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility. A traveller in another of the cars relayed the incident to an Israeli news agency describing the man as armed with a Kalashnikov and wearing a helmet. "He opened fire but didn't hit us. He kept firing at the cars behind us," the man said.
Israel's Channel 10 quoted another witness describing the man as dressed in black.
The shooting took place near a road junction that leads to the Palestinian village of Idna, which on Friday evening was reported to be surrounded by a heavy Israeli military presence looking for the shooter.
The shooting comes amid increasing tensions following a stalemate in peace talks.
It also comes hard on the heels of permission by the Israeli army on Sunday for three settler families to move into a building in nearby Hebron, after a long legal battle and culminating on Sunday with the authorisation by Israel's defence minister, Moshe Ya'alon, of the first new settlement in Hebron since the 1980s.
Some 500 Israeli families live in the heart of Hebron, which is home to about 250,000 Palestinians. Enmity between the two groups runs high.
However, with no immediate claim of responsibility the precise motives for the shooting remained unclear.
In the last 12 months five Israelis have been killed in attacks on the West Bank. According to figures collated by the Israeli NGO B'Tselem between January 2009 and the end of February this year 82 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces or civilians on the West Bank and 20 Israelis.