Sunday, 24 April 2011
A site known as Joseph's Tomb is located in Palestinian controlled territory. (File photo)
An Israeli was shot dead and two others were wounded in an attack early Sunday in the West Bank, the military and a rescue service said.
The military said the three Israelis apparently entered the Palestinian city of Nablus without coordination with the military and were shot by Palestinian gunmen.
However, the army said it was also “investigating other options.”
After being shot, two went to a Jewish settlement and were hospitalized while the other headed to a military base in the area but died before reaching.
The shooting occurred before dawn at a site known as Joseph’s Tomb, the army said.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews often enter the city with a military escort to pray at the tomb of the biblical patriarch Joseph. Those visits are also coordinated with Palestinian security forces.
There has been at least one incident of Israeli troops opening fire on worshippers trying to sneak in.
Palestinian witnesses said the army had sealed off the area and were conducting searches.
Sunday’s attack came as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought the international recognition of a Palestinian state he plans to declare in September.
But the ongoing violence and a continued division between Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah are likely to undermine the efforts of President Abbas at the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Mr. Abbas had said he would be willing to visit the Hama-controlled Gaza strip in a reconciliation bid with the Islamist movement.
Several Arab initiatives have failed to end the four-year long and sometimes bloody division among the Palestinians.
The United States has said it would press for the resumption of the peace process, which collapsed last year amid an Israeli refusal to renew a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank.
(Mustapha Ajbaili of Al Arabiya can be reached at: Mustapha.ajbaili@mbc.net.)
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