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Israeli man wounded in West Bank drive-by shooting

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An Israeli father of six and his family were attacked Saturday night as they drove near the West Bank community of Tekoa.

The man was moderately wounded in the hip as three shots were fired at the car, but continued driving his wife and children towards the next junction where Israeli army medics were able to treat him. None of the other family members were hurt in the attack. The assailant reportedly ran towards the Palestinian village of Sa’ir, where movement has since been significantly restricted as security forces to try to locate the attacker.

Davidi Perl, head of the local Gush Etzion Regional council, told YNet news: “We’ve had it up to here… We had a break, and now they have returned with firearms. The prime minister and defence minister need to make dramatic changes on the ground.”

The shooting comes a week after another drive-by shooting, which killed a father of ten, Rabbi Michael Mark. The attack took place not far from Saturday’s shooting, near the West Bank community of Otniel. Just a day earlier, also in the same area, 13-year-old Israeli girl Hallel Yaffa Ariel was stabbed to death in her bed by a Palestinian teenager. At least 39 people have been killed since a wave of Palestinian attacks began in October.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident on Friday, a Jordanian citizen breached the border fence with northern Israel, threw rocks at a travelling Israeli car, and attempted to steal the vehicle. He was shot by a security guard from a nearby kibbutz. The head of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, Idan Greenbaum, described the incident as a “severe” security breach.

And in the Gaza Strip, an Islamic Jihad operative was killed yesterday when a tunnel he was constructing collapsed. It was the thirteenth such collapse this year, as Hamas and other terror groups look to rebuild the network of tunnels used to attack Israeli targets during Operation Protective Edge two years ago.