Senior Israeli terrorist wounded in West Bank attack

A former member of an Israeli terrorist organization has been shot and wounded alongside his wife in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.

Shaul Nir, who used to serve the so-called Jewish Underground, sustained serious injuries in the shooting near the northwestern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Wednesday evening. His wife, Rachel Nir, was lightly wounded.

The assailants fled the scene, and Israeli police forces have launched an operation to arrest them.

The terrorist group to which Shaul Nir belonged carried out a series of terror attacks, including car bomb attacks, against Palestinian officials, and its highest profile plot was to destroy the Dome of the Rock in al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Nir, together with three other members of the terrorist group, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1983 shooting attack on the Islamic College in al-Khalil (Hebron) and attempted assassinations. His sentences were controversially commuted three times by then president Chaim Herzog, and he was released after serving less than seven years.

Separately on Wednesday, a Palestinian was shot and killed after allegedly stabbing two Israelis in al-Khalil.

Tensions between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip are showing no sign of abatement. The wave of unrest was triggered by Israel’s imposition in August of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

Palestinians are also angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers, who frequently storm the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The Palestinians say the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.

Nearly 120 Palestinians and about 20 Israelis have been killed in the recent wave of clashes between Palestinians and Israelis since the start of October.