Deadly West Bank Attacks
One Dead, Six Wounded in Multiple Shootings Near West Bank Border; Police Search for Assailants
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A lone gunman killed one person and wounded six others in a coordinated shooting rampage across four sites near the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday morning, according to Magen David Adom, Israel's national rescue service. Israeli police shot and killed the attacker roughly 50 minutes after the first shots were fired.
The attack began around 10:30 AM at a gas station near Kochav Yair, a town on the Israeli side of the boundary with the West Bank. The gunman then struck three more locations — Tzur Yitzhak, Route 5533 near Tzur Natan, and the community of Sal'it — before fleeing toward the city of Tayibe, where he was found and killed by security forces.
How the 50-Minute Shooting Spree Unfolded
The gunman opened fire at a gas station near Kochav Yair at around 10:30 AM, wounding two men — one seriously, one moderately — while they were refueling, according to Times of Israel. Minutes later, he shot a security guard at the entrance to Tzur Yitzhak, hitting the guard in the hand.
The deadliest moment came at around 10:40 AM on Route 5533 near Tzur Natan. The attacker fired into a vehicle, killing a 35-year-old man and critically wounding a 40-year-old man, i24NEWS reported. After firing at security personnel in Sal'it, the gunman fled. Police and IDF forces caught up with him in a quarry near Tayibe at around 11:20 AM and shot him dead.
Attacker Identified as Arab Israeli from Tayibe
Israeli security sources identified the gunman as Omar Yassin, a 22-year-old Arab Israeli citizen from the city of Tayibe, according to Ynet News. He used a makeshift "Carlo" submachine gun — a cheap, homemade weapon modeled after a Swedish military design and commonly built in West Bank workshops. He also drove a stolen vehicle with Israeli license plates.
Home Front Command activated terrorist infiltration sirens in Tzur Natan and Tzur Yitzhak, ordering residents to shelter in place during the manhunt, Jerusalem Post reported. MDA paramedic Lior Zilberberg said his team happened to be running a drill nearby: "We saw complete chaos at the gas station and the entrance to Tzur Yitzhak."
Hamas Praises Attack, Cites Hebron Baby's Death
Hamas called the shooting "heroic" and a "natural response to the crimes of the occupation in Gaza and the West Bank," according to Al Jazeera. The group pointed specifically to a Friday incident in Hebron, where Israeli troops fired at a car they said was accelerating toward them, killing Sam Fahd Abu Haikal — a seven-month-old Palestinian baby — and wounding his parents. Palestinian Islamic Jihad also praised the attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an immediate security assessment and his office said he was "closely monitoring the developments," The National News reported. The IDF began encircling several Palestinian villages near nearby West Bank crossings and temporarily shut transit points following the attack.
Attack Raises Fears of Wider Violence in the Region
Analysts warned that the rolling, multi-site nature of the attack — four locations hit in roughly 10 minutes — showed clear pre-planning designed to overwhelm security before forces could respond. Because the attacker was an Arab Israeli citizen rather than a West Bank Palestinian, the incident is expected to fuel calls within Netanyahu's coalition for tighter controls on Arab Israeli communities, according to Al Jazeera.
There are also fears of retaliatory "price tag" attacks — acts of vandalism or violence by extremist settlers against Palestinian villages. The attack comes during a period of intense bloodshed, with over 500 Palestinians and 40 Israelis killed in various clashes and attacks since October 2023, according to The National News.
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