JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian motorist they suspected of attempting to drive his vehicle into a military checkpoint near a West Bank settlement on Tuesday, the Israeli military said.
The driver “accelerated his car towards a manned military post” next to Mevo Dotan in the occupied West Bank, the military said.
Soldiers opened fire and the car crashed into an Israeli army vehicle, setting both on fire. No soldiers were injured, a military statement said.
The attack happened near the site of an ambush last Thursday in which Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli motorist as he left a yeshiva in the former settlement outpost of Homesh.
There have been several Palestinian attacks on Israelis in recent weeks. Palestinians also complain of attacks by settlers, whose residence in the West Bank the international community considers illegal.
Tor Wennesland, the United Nations Mideast peace envoy, last week said he was “alarmed” by the recent escalation of violence on both sides, saying the situation had become “volatile”.
In Gaza, the Islamist militant group Hamas praised the latest incident but did not take responsibility.
(Reporting by Stephen Farrell; Editing by Dan Grebler)
