AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – A gunman fired at joggers from a passing car at a junction near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday, medics said, and the Zionist regime’s military blocked roads and launched a search in response.
The occupying regime’s ambulance service said it treated a 28-year-old with a hand injury before transferring him to hospital. He was running with a group on Tuesday.
The shooting occurred along Route 60, the main north-south highway in the occupied West Bank that passes along some large Zionist settlements.
It was the latest in year-long series of incidents in an upsurge in violence by the occupying regime, with frequent military raids and violence by Zionist settlers.
On Monday, a Palestinian drove his car into a crowd on an Al-Quds street in what police said was a deliberate attack, wounding five people, including a 70-year-old man in serious condition. Earlier, Zionist troops killed a Palestinian during a raid in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian resistance groups have hailed the “heroic operation” in Al-Quds as “a natural response” to the violence perpetrated by the Zionist regime against Palestinians.
“We commend the car-ramming operation in the occupied city of Al-Quds; and consider it a natural and effective response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, as well as incursions into and desecration of the Bab al-Rahma prayer space,” the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) said in a statement.
“The operation marks a new and strong blow to the security and military apparatus of the Zionist entity. It conveys a clear message to the criminal entity and its fascist leaders that there is no safety or security for them on our [Palestinian] land,” the statement added.
Abdel Latif al-Qanou, a spokesman for the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement, also said the Al-Quds operation was carried out in retaliation for the occupying regime’s crimes against Palestinians and its violations of the sanctity of the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque, the latest of which was storming Bab al-Rahma area and cutting off electricity there.
“The Zionist occupation will continue to pay the price for its crimes and incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque. It will neither enjoy security nor stability, and our people will continue their revolution and defense of the mosque,” he pointed out.
More than 90 Palestinians and at least 19 Zionists and foreigners have been killed since January.
The occupying regime captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Al-Quds, territories Palestinians want for an independent state, in a 1967 Middle East war.
Over the past months, the occupying regime has ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and cities throughout the occupied territories. As a result of these attacks, dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.
Most of the raids have focused on Nablus and Jenin, where Israeli forces have been trying to stifle a growing Palestinian resistance against occupation.
Local and international rights groups have condemned the occupying regime’s excessive use of force and “shoot-to-kill policy” against Palestinians.