Israeli teenager killed by bomb near settlement: Israeli officials
[su_label type=”info”]SMA News – Agancies[/su_label][su_spacer size=”10″][su_dropcap]A[/su_dropcap] n Israeli teenager was killed and her father and brother were injured by a Palestinian bomb near a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Friday, Israeli officials said.
The family was visiting a spring in a popular hiking area when an improvised explosive device (IED) blew up, the Israeli military and paramedics said.
The Israeli military said it was being treated as a terrorist attack. It was not immediately clear if the device had been planted in advance or thrown.
Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service confirmed that 17-year-old Rina Shnerb had died at the scene and said her father and brother – named by Israeli media as Rabbi David Eitan, 46, and 21-year-old Dvir – were in serious condition.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent condolences to the family and said security forces were pursuing the attackers, adding: “The long arm of Israel reaches all those who seek our lives and will settle accounts with them.”
The hilly central region of the West Bank around Dolev is studded with olive groves and orchards.
The area saw clashes last year between Palestinians and Israelis, as Palestinian villagers complained that settlers were trying to take over land, including water sources.
On Friday morning, the Israeli military quickly cordoned off the area around the Ein Bobin spring near the Palestinian village of Deir Ibzi’ while soldiers blocked roads and searched the area.
An Israeli student, Danny Gonen, was killed at the same spring in 2015 in an attack claimed by a group that said it was affiliated with the Islamist group Hamas.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh praised the latest attack but did not claim responsibility for it, warning Israel not to “assault our Jerusalem and our sacred sites”.
In a speech in Gaza he said: “I bless this operation and I greet the hands of those who executed it. I pray for God to protect those who stood behind it. Regardless of who they are, they are Palestinians.”
