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Photos:
Betsheva Nigri, 40. Published by IMEMC News

The scene of the suspected shooting attack in the West Bank, on Monday. Published by Haaretz
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by IMEMC News
Aug 22, 2023

On Monday, a 40-year-old Israeli woman was shot and killed while driving near the Palestinian city of al-Khalil, in the West Bank’s southern part. Another passenger in the vehicle, an adult male, was wounded, while a six-year-old child in the car was not harmed.

Update: The Israeli woman killed in the shooting has been identified as Betsheva Nigri, 40, while another Israeli, Aryeh Gottleib, 39, was seriously injured. Nigri was from the Beit Haggai illegal colony, in the southern Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that the army arrested two young Palestinian men, both relatives from Hebron, who were believed to be behind the shooting and said in a social media post that the army will continue to “pursue and arrest Israel’s enemies…”

A joint statement by the Shin Bet, Israeli Border Police, and the Israeli Army confirmed the arrest of the two Palestinians and said they were moved to an interrogation facility run by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

During the invasion and the arrests, the Israeli army said it located and confiscated several weapons.

The army said the two did not resist the soldiers who abducted them. One of them, believed to be the one who killed the Israeli settler woman, has been identified as Saqer Shanteer.

It also said the gun reportedly used in the attack was located and confiscated, adding that the car the Palestinians used in the shooting was found burnt near Halhoul town, north of Hebron.

The gun used in the attack was also apprehended and the car that was allegedly used by the terrorists in their attack was found burned in the near-by city of Halhul.

Israeli military sources issued a statement claiming that two Israelis were shot from a passing vehicle.

Israeli forces closed all Palestinian roads in the area and implemented checkpoints, causing serious travel delays for the Palestinian population of the southern West Bank.

The wounded man was taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er As-Sabe’ (Beersheva), and, according to medical sources, is in serious condition.

First Published on: Aug 21, 2023 at 12:40
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Israeli Woman Killed in West Bank Shooting Attack, Another Injured

Two Israelis were hit by gunfire while travelling in a car in the south Hebron hills. The injured man was taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva and a 12-year-old girl, who was also in the car, was uninjured

by Yaniv Kubovich, Hagar Shezaf, Jonathan LisBen Samuels, The Associated Press, Reuters
Published by Haaretz
Aug 21, 2023

A 40-year-old Israeli woman was killed in a shooting attack while driving in the south Hebron hills in the West Bank, Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service says.

The woman was later identified as Batsheva Nigri, a mother of three and kindergarten teacher from the settlement of Beit Hagai. She was laid to rest at the cemetery at Kfar Etzion settlement on Monday night.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the scene of the attack on Monday evening and said that Israel "is in the middle of a terror attack that is encouraged, guided and funded by Iran and its satellite states."

Israel, he said, would employ measures to settle the score with the attackers and those who sent them, from near or far.

The second victim was taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, and he is reported to be in serious condition. He was later identified as Arye Gotliv, also of Beit Hagai. A 12-year-old girl, who was also in the car, was uninjured.

Israeli security forces said the suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire at an Israeli car on Route 60, the main north-south road in the West Bank, near the major city of Hebron. The army said the apparent drive-by shooting killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man as the two were driving.

The Israeli rescue service first reported the two victims were in their 40s and that a 12-year-old girl who was also in the car was unharmed. The man was found semi-conscious and taken to the hospital.

Images from the scene showed the victims’ shattered sedan riddled with bullet holes. The gunman fled, prompting Israeli security forces to embark on their second manhunt in three days.

The military shut down all entrances to the Palestinian city of Hebron along with other towns to the south and east.

The Hamas militant group and Palestinian Islamic Jihad praised the attack as a response to Israel’s expanding settlement enterprise in the West Bank, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, sent his condolences to Nigri’s family following news of her death. “In the name of the entire people,” he said in a statement, “I send my condolences to the family and loved ones of Batsheva, a quick recovery to the injured, and I empower our brothers and sisters in Judea and Samaria [biblical names of the regions that make up the West Bank] in their difficult time.”

Herzog also called on the people of Israel to “support the IDF and security forces – and only them – in their diligent and relentless fight against terrorism.”

IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs reacted to the attack, saying "we're in the middle of an escalation and a wave of terror, the likes of which we haven't seen for quite a while. We'll study the recent events, conduct an inquiry and draw conclusions that will help us achieve our mission."

When asked about the verbal attacks from settlers aimed at him, Maj. Gen Fuchs said, "I've been a public servant for 35 years, and I'll stay [in the army] as long as I reach the goal of the IDF, which is to give security to all citizens of Israel, even those who don't love [me]."

‘Too conciliatory’
Responding to the attack, far-right lawmakers from Israel’s coalition called for revenge, mostly placing the responsibility on Defense Minister Yoav Gallant from Netanyahu’s Likud party.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose demand for quick demolition of terrorists’ homes proved unsuccessful in stopping the current wave of attacks, slammed Gallant for being “too conciliatory.”

In a statement, Ben-Gvir called on Netanyahu to place checkpoints, enforce blockades, deny work permits from Palestinians and return to the policy of targeted assassinations in the West Bank.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday at Mount Hebron that “We must not pass on the agenda” on the wave of terrorism. “What was is not what will be. I will work to make the right decisions in the appropriate forums.” According to Smotrich, “We have a settlement challenge — open and expand the settlements and thus send a very clear message to our enemies that terrorism doesn’t pay and settlement blossoms, grows and develops.”

National Missions Minister Orit Strock from Religious Zionism also pointed to Gallant, saying that “the roads [in the West Bank] will not be a green path for terror.”

Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Zvi Sukkot, who visited the hospitalized suspect in the killing of a Palestinian earlier this month, tweeted that “The government has changed the equation in both Gaza and Samaria, but it is still not enough ... We prefer terrorists in the grave and not in prison.”

Likud MK Tally Gotliv tweeted a response to the attack calling the West Bank city of Hawara “infested with terrorists” and called on people to stop going there. “Only a hard hand against terror!! Unfortunately, this is the only language that terrorists and their accomplices understand,” she added.

MK Yitzhak Kroizer also tweeted a response demanding revenge, saying that “Jewish blood is will not be wasted!”

Michal Woldiger, deputy Finance Minister from Religious Zionism, joined her fellow coalition members in placing blame on the government they themselves are a part of, saying that “as long as terrorists continue moving freely in Area C [of the West Bank] we will continue seeing attacks and victims.”

Responding to the slew of comments by coalition lawmakers, sources in the IDF said that such statements only increase security tensions and encourage settlers to carry out attacks on innocent Palestinians – which in turn lead to retaliatory attacks.

The U.S. State Department also reacted to the attack, saying "We again condemn today's terrorist attack by a Palestinian militant that killed one Israeli and wounded one other. We send our deepest condolences to the victims’ families. This violence must stop."

On Saturday, two Israelis, a father and a son from Ashdod, were murdered in the West Bank near the town of Hawara. Emergency services attempted to treat the two, 60-year-old Shay Silas Nigrekar of Ashdod and his 28-year-old son Aviad, but the pair were pronounced dead at the scene.

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