JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire at an Israeli checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, wounding a security guard before he was shot dead by forces at the scene, Israel’s police said.
Police distributed a photo of an M-16 rifle they said was used by the gunman to carry out the shooting at the Qalandia checkpoint. They said his identity was not yet known but that he had arrived on foot from inside the West Bank.
There was no immediate comment by Palestinian officials.
Violence surged this week in the West Bank, where for over a year the military has conducted regular sweeps leading to repeated clashes with Palestinian fighters amid a spate of Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.
The past few days saw deadly clashes in the city of Jenin, a fatal Palestinian shooting attack near a settlement, attacks on Palestinian villages by settlers and a rare Israeli air strike in the West Bank against militants.
On Friday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan encouraged more steps to restore calm between Israel and the Palestinians during a call with his Israeli counterpart, the White House said.
U.S.-brokered peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, collapsed in 2014 and show no sign of revival.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by William Mallard)
