One person has lost their life and five others have been injured this Sunday in central Israel after a shooting registered in different points of the local council of Kochav Yair. This has been confirmed by the Israeli Police, who have described what happened as "a terrorist attack" and have reported the "neutralization" of the two suspects involved.
According to the Israeli Emergency service, Magev David Adom, one of the injured remains in serious condition, while three others continue in an unstable situation and not yet out of danger.
The violent episode began at a gas station, where two men in their 30s were shot. Minutes later, the attackers opened fire again in "adjacent areas" of the nearby communities of Tzur Yitzhak and Tzur Natan. As a consequence, a 31-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman suffered moderate gunshot wounds. Another man, in his 40s, was seriously injured and a fifth victim, in his 30s, died from his injuries.
In Tzur Yitzhak and Tzur Natan, alarm sirens sounded for terrorist infiltration, ordering residents to take shelter in their homes. The three towns are located very close to the separation wall erected by the Israeli authorities around the West Bank.
After the shooting, the perpetrator of the attack drove a vehicle to the Jewish settlement of Salit, in the West Bank, where he again fired at the entrance. He fled after a security guard responded with fire, without further victims at this point.
"The Police located and neutralized the vehicle suspected of being involved and also neutralized the terrorist suspected of the attack near Tzur Yitzhak," the Israeli Police announced on social media. The suspect, identified as Israeli Arab citizen Omar Yasin, was shot dead in the vicinity of the town of Tayibe, north of Kochav Yair.
The Ezzeldin al-Qassam Brigades have claimed responsibility for the attack, framing it as a response to the "aggression of the occupation and the settlers" against the Palestinian population, according to their spokesman, Abu Obeida. This armed wing, linked to Hamas, has specified that the perpetrator of the shooting is a Palestinian resident in the territories occupied in 1948.
The group has also praised the hit-and-run that occurred on Saturday night, in which two teenagers were injured. Both actions are, in their opinion, a "pride" and they justify them as "self-defense and in response to the crimes of the occupation".