An Israeli soldier was seriously wounded during a shootout with Palestinian gunmen in the northern West Bank early Wednesday, the military said, The Times of Israel reports.
The Israel Defense Forces said the servicewoman was hit by shrapnel during an arrest raid in the city of Tubas, near Nablus, in the northern Jordan Valley.
“During the activity in Tubas, there was an exchange of fire between armed men and IDF forces,” the IDF said.
The military initially blocked publication of the incident for several hours.
The IDF said that during an arrest operation in the city, the two gunmen opened fire at troops from a passing vehicle. “The troops responded by firing at the two terrorists, killing them,” the IDF said, adding that troops seized an assault rifle and handgun from the car.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been elevated for the past year, with the IDF conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks.
Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 19 people and left several more seriously hurt. At least 103 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that span, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated.
The raids early Wednesday came as tensions continued to build a day after Israel launched an offensive against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip.
