Palestinian kills two Israelis driving in West Bank

A Palestinian man shot and killed two Israelis and wounded a teenager as they were driving in the West Bank.

The attack killed a man in his 40s and a youth of around 18 years of age, Eli Bin from the Israeli emergency services said.

Israeli media reported that the attack happened near the city of Hebron and that the two were father and son.

At least one other person, a teenager, was wounded in the attack, Mr Bin said. Israeli media reported that at least two Israelis were wounded and taken to hospital.

The military said the “terrorist fled the scene” after the attack and that troops were searching the area.

Israel’s Channel 10 TV said a Palestinian man opened fire from the side of the road at a passing car, killing a man and a woman and wounding a 15-year-old boy.

Hebron, the largest West Bank city, has been a particular flashpoint in the current round of violence. Several hundred Jewish settlers live in fortified enclaves in the city, amid tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The military says that over the past month, Palestinians have carried out dozens of attacks in Hebron alone, including more than 20 stabbings, multiple assaults with cars and other vehicles and several shooting attacks.

A total of 14 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks since mid-September, mostly by being stabbed, while 79 Palestinians have been killed, including 50 who Israel says were involved in attacks.

Friday’s attack was reminiscent of a similar incident in October when Palestinians shot and killed an Israeli couple in front of their four children, including a four-month-old baby, as the family was driving in the West Bank.

Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency later arrested five Palestinians it said were part of a Hamas cell that carried out the attack.

Meanwhile, an 18-year-old Palestinian man died of Israeli gunshot wounds sustained the previous day in the West Bank village of Sair.

Medical officials said the man was shot at a demonstration that followed the funeral of a villager killed in an undercover Israeli raid overnight on a West Bank hospital.