An Israeli man has died in a shooting in the West Bank, according to the Israeli army and emergency responders.
An unknown assailant, or assailants, opened fire on a car near the settler outpost of Homesh, about 20 kilometers (approximately 12 miles) to the northwest of Nablus, an army spokesman said. Two others were wounded in the attack. Two emergency responders from the Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service, who were among the first on the scene, said they found a man in the back seat of the car, « unconscious with gunshot wounds to his body. » He has been named by the Yesha Council settler organization as 25-year-old Yehuda Dimentman, who lived in the Shavei Shomron settlement, near Homesh, with his family. « Together with an IDF medical team we gave him advanced and prolonged resuscitation treatment at the end of which we were forced to determine his death. The driver of the vehicle and another passenger were fully conscious and… suffering from minor injuries from the broken glass, » they said. The wounded were taken to hospital where their condition is mild, the MDA responders said. Homesh is what Israel calls an illegal outpost, a West Bank settlement that has been established without government approval. Under international law all settlements, whether established with Israeli government approval or not, are considered illegal. Israeli disputes that characterization. Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz expressed his condolences and vowed that those responsible would be caught. « We will increase our vigilance and readiness to thwart terror, » he said in a statement. Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, praised the attack as a « heroic operation, » as did another militant faction, Islamic Jihad, though neither made a claim of responsibility. In a call with reporters Thursday evening, Israeli army spokesman Amnon Shefler said it was still unclear whether any one particular group had carried out the shooting.
