UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON (VOP TODAY NEWS) — A 17-year-old Israeli girl was killed on Friday in a homemade bomb attack in the occupied West Bank, where the presence of settlements raises tensions.
The Israeli army said the explosion was caused by a “grenade attack” near the settlement of Dolph northwest of Ramallah.
Reporters from the AFP news agency reported that the Israeli security forces deployed throughout the area, and closed roads leading to the place, and conducts checks and searches in passing cars.
Israeli officials confirmed that the attack, for which no one claimed responsibility, took place near a spring used by Israelis and Palestinians in the area as a swimming pool. It is located near the Palestinian village of Deir Bzeih. The girl was visiting the spring with her father and brother, who were seriously injured.
The wounded, 46, and 20, were rushed to a hospital in Jerusalem by helicopter, according to the MDA.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said in a statement that he was “shocked” by the killing of Israeli girl Reina Schnierb in a horrific terrorist attack this morning.
“My heart and my prayers are with her family at this difficult time, and I wish the wounded healed. It was an attack against innocent people living their normal day in peace.”
The girl’s funeral will be held on Friday afternoon in the central Israeli city of Lod, where her family lives, the mayor of Lod said.
The bombing came one week after a run-off that wounded two Israelis at the entrance to the Eliezer settlement, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. The army shot and killed the Palestinian who carried out the attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attributed the family of the girl Reina Schnerb “who was killed in a terrorist attack this morning,” wishing “the speedy recovery of her father, Rabbi Eitan, and her brother Debir.”
– Promoting settlement –
“We will continue to strengthen settlements. We will deepen our roots and strike our enemies,” Netanyahu, who is campaigning for the September 17 elections, said in a statement. “We will arrest the hateful terrorists.”
Some 630,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupied in 1967, along with 3 million Palestinians.
Netanyahu vowed ahead of legislative elections in April to annex settlements in the West Bank, a move sought by Israel’s far-right.
He stressed that Israel “reaches out to all who seek to destroy our lives and will settle our scores with them.”
Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, praised the operation, saying: “I bless the operation today.
He described the operation as “heroic, although I don’t know who carried it out.”
In recent days, clashes have intensified along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, where some 2 million Palestinians live.
Israeli troops opened fire on a Palestinian who threw grenades at Israeli soldiers as he tried to cross the Gaza-Israel border overnight, wounding him, the Israeli army and the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Israeli army said that the Palestinian tried to cross a border fence in the northern Gaza Strip, noting that “the soldiers went to the terrorist and crossed the security fence and hit him.”
Analysts say Netanyahu wants to avoid an escalation in Gaza ahead of the Israeli election, but Palestinian Islamist movements, including Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, are seeking more concessions from Israel as part of the Gaza truce.
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