A shooting at a gas station outside a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday afternoon left two Israeli men dead, according to Israeli officials, who said the gunman was also killed.
Avraham Applebaum, a medic for Israel’s emergency medical services, said that when he arrived at the gas station outside the Israeli settlement of Eli, he saw “one injured person with many bullet wounds in a car and another lying” on the ground.
“We did what we could,” Mr. Applebaum said, but the wounds were too serious. Shortly thereafter, the two men, aged 20 and 40, were declared dead by the emergency service.
Israel’s military called the attacker a “terrorist,” adding that after he opened fire on the gas station, he was killed. Israeli media reports said he was killed by a civilian who had returned from reserve duty in Gaza.
Four civilians were killed at the same gas station in Eli last June in a shooting attack claimed by Hamas.
Last week, a shooting attack near a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank killed one and injured several others.
Since Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 and the start of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, violence and Israeli military raids have escalated in the West Bank, as have unauthorized moves by Jewish settlers in the occupied territory. Palestinian militias have carried out shooting attacks against Israelis; frequent Israeli military raids have arrested thousands and have often turned deadly; and extremist Jewish settlers have rampaged through Palestinian villages, setting fire to property.
