Three Israelis were killed and eight wounded on Jan. 6 in the northern West Bank after Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a key highway that runs through the area.
The attack is the latest in a year that has seen heightened violence in the West Bank alongside Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. In Monday’s attack, the gunmen fired on two Israeli cars and a bus that were passing through the Palestinian town of Al-Funduq on Highway 55, which runs from Israel into the West Bank through Palestinian and Israeli areas.
The attack ended when an Israeli civilian fired on the shooters.
According to Israeli reports, the gunmen killed two women in their 60s as well as Elad Winkelstein, 35, a police officer who was driving with his son. Winkelstein, an investigator in the Israeli settlement of Ariel’s police station, lives in northern Israel and was reportedly previously the security coordinator of the West Bank settlement of Kedumim. The attack also wounded the driver of the bus that was targeted.
The female victims were later named as sisters-in-law Rachel Cohen, 73, and Aliza Rice, 70, from Kedumim. They were driving together when the Palestinian terrorists opened fire.
A 63-year-old man, the driver of the bus, was listed by MDA as being in serious condition. Among the bus passengers, seven were injured. This included two women, aged around 60 and 70, who were listed in moderate condition. The remaining passengers suffered minor injuries.
They were evacuated to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba and Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah.
The attack comes during more than a year of fighting in the West Bank. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousands arrested, mostly in Israeli counter-terror operations, and dozens of Israelis have been killed in attacks the West Bank and Israel, since the start of Israel’s multi-front war with Hamas’ invasion on Oct. 7, 2023.
Last week, three Palestinians were killed in clashes between Palestinian Authority forces and terror groups in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
JNS contributed to this report.
