Nine Israelis Wounded in Shooting Operation – Al-Qassam Claims Responsibility

Nine Israelis were wounded in a shooting operation near Ariel. (Photo: video grab)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The ambush targeted an Israeli military patrol and a bus traveling from Tel Aviv, with Israeli medical authorities confirming that three of the injured were in critical condition.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, claimed responsibility on Friday for a shooting attack near the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank that left nine Israelis injured, including soldiers. 

The ambush targeted an Israeli military patrol and a bus traveling from Tel Aviv, with Israeli medical authorities confirming that three of the injured were in critical condition. Among those wounded were soldiers and members of a police patrol who came under fire during the incident.

In a statement, the Qassam Brigades praised the operation as a “heroic act,” identifying the fighter as 46-year-old Samer Hussein, a resident of Einabus, a village south of Nablus in the northern West Bank. 

“As the Al-Qassam Brigades bid farewell to their heroic martyr, they emphasize that every decision written with the ink of the extremist zionist government targeting the West Bank will be paid for with blood spilled from the bodies of soldiers and settlers in every governorate of the West Bank,” the statement said.

According to the statement, Hussein surprised a group of Israeli soldiers on the bus, firing three magazines of ammunition before being shot and killed by Israeli forces. 

“One of our heroic fighters ambushed a group of zionist soldiers and settlers inside a bus, injuring nine, three of them critically,” the statement said.

Israeli media corroborated that Hussein had arrived from Nablus using an unmonitored road that bypassed security checkpoints. 

Exiting his car with an M16 rifle, he managed to carry out the attack before being killed by Israeli occupation forces. 

Initial speculation of a second assailant was dismissed after Israeli forces conducted a sweep of the area.

Settler Threats

Yossi Dagan, head of the Northern West Bank Settlement Council, called the incident a grave escalation in what he described as a “terror war” orchestrated and funded by the Palestinian Authority. 

He urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to close all checkpoints in the West Bank, dismantle Palestinian Authority infrastructure, and impose sweeping military measures, including economic penalties. 

Similarly, the head of the Kedumim Settlement Council demanded large-scale raids in Palestinian cities to “cleanse them of weapons and those he referred to as terrorists.”

The assault near Ariel unfolded against the backdrop of an intensified Israeli military crackdown in the West Bank. 

Over the past weeks, military operations have escalated in Palestinian cities, leading to frequent clashes and rising casualties. 

Additionally, settler violence against Palestinians and their properties has surged, further inflaming the already volatile situation.

(PC, AJA)

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