A Palestinian gunman shot and killed an Israeli security guard in central Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, in what the Israeli police described as a terrorist attack.
The victim, Chen Amir, 42, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The shooter was also shot and killed at the scene, by another security guard, the police said. A nearby mass protest against Israel’s judicial overhaul proceeded as planned.
The gunman was later identified by the police as a 27-year-old resident of Jenin, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that Israeli soldiers raided last month in an attempt to prevent militants from using it as a safe haven.
The attack extended an intense run of violence in which the death rates on both sides this year were already far higher than in the equivalent period of 2022. Palestinian militancy and Israeli settler extremism have both risen sharply as Israel’s government — the most right-wing in its history — has taken swift steps to entrench Israel’s 56-year occupation of the West Bank.
Mr. Amir was one of more than 30 Israelis killed in Arab attacks so far this year, most of them shot by Palestinian gunmen.
His death came less than a day after a Palestinian civilian, Qusai Matan, 19, was shot and killed during an altercation with Israeli settlers on the outskirts of a Palestinian village in the central West Bank. Palestinian officials said Mr. Matan was killed by a settler, and two Israelis were later arrested by the Israeli police.
Mr. Matan is one of more than 200 Palestinians killed in fighting so far this year, most of them during clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in the West Bank, or during Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli government has given the go-ahead to thousands of new settlement homes, accelerated the process by which new homes are authorized, and given retroactive permission to nine settlements built without government authorization.
The volume of settler-led attacks on Palestinians is nearly 40 percent higher than during the equivalent period of 2022, which was itself the most violent on record, according to data released on Friday by the United Nations.
2023-08-05 15:53:43
Article from www.nytimes.com
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