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Israeli soldier killed in crossfire during West Bank knife attack

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An Israeli reserve soldier was killed yesterday by shots aimed at a Palestinian assailant after he was attacked with a knife in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank.

30-year-old Eliav Gelman, a father of two, was at a bus stop when a Palestinian man ran towards him brandishing a knife. As the attack unfolded, a soldier and an armed reservist apparently fired shots but did not hit their target. Members of the Kfir infantry brigade quickly arrived on the scene and opened fire, mistakenly hitting Gelman in the chest, who was taken to hospital in Jerusalem, but died of his wounds. The assailant was wounded and was later named as 26-year-old Mamdouh Amro, a mathematics teacher from Hebron.

Gelman had been discharged from his regular army service only a few months ago and was a captain in the reserves. He leaves behind two young children and a pregnant wife. Gelman is also a relative of Benaya Sarel, a soldier killed during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in summer 2014. Gelman, who lived in a community not far from where the attack took place, was buried last night in the Kfar Etzion cemetery in Gush Etzion. His brother Eyal eulogized him, saying “My brother fell in battle… In a battle that we have known for a long time.”

Gush Etzion and in particular the junction at which Gelman was attacked, has been a focal point for violence since the near-daily attacks on Israelis began at the start of October. It is a region where Israelis and Palestinians live in close proximity to each other. Earlier this month, a 28-year-old Israeli man was stabbed and moderately wounded while jogging in the area.

In a separate development yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with leaders from Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip and told them that the IDF is “likely to find an imminent solution” to Hamas’s rebuilding of attack tunnels from Gaza underneath the Israeli border, threatening local residents.