Palestinian man, Israeli child die as bloodshed rises
Palestinian health officials say an Israeli settler fatally shot a Palestinian in the northern West Bank, while a child wounded in a car-ramming in Jerusalem has died a day after the attack
JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli settler shot and killed a Palestinian in the northern West Bank on Saturday, Palestinian health officials said, while an 8-year-old child died of injuries suffered a day before in a car-ramming attack in Jerusalem.
As night fell, warning sirens sounded in southern Israel when Palestinian militants fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip that was intercepted by Israeli aerial defenses, the Israeli military said. There was no immediate statement from Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza.
Saturday's events were the latest escalation in months of surging violence in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
In the northern West Bank, near Salfit, a farming village of olive groves, video footage showed Israeli settlers racing down the hills and tearing into the town. As Palestinians poured into the streets to see what was going on, an Israeli settler opened fire, killing a 27-year-old villager, said Ghassan Douglas, a Palestinian official who monitors Israeli settlements in the Nablus region. The settlers dispersed when the Israeli military arrived, he said.