Israeli forces closed parts of the West Bank on Saturday following the slayings of two Israelis and also struck militant sites in Gaza in response to a rocket attack that hit an empty kindergarten.
The lockdown of the West Bank city of Hebron and surrounding villages came amid an escalation of violence that has sparked Israel’s largest military response in two years.
Troops closed all exit roads from Hebron, the West Bank’s most populous city, except for the main northern one through the town of Halhul toward Jerusalem, Agence France-Presse reported.
Relatives hug each other in the bedroom of Israeli girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel.ReutersOn Thursday, Mohammed Nasser Tarayra, a 19-year-old Palestinian, broke into the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron and killed 13-year-old Israeli-American Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her bedroom before being shot dead by a guard.
The next day, Rabbi Michael Mark, 48, a father of 10 and head of a yeshiva in Otniel, was killed after his car was fired on by Palestinian gunmen south of Hebron.
Mark’s wounded 15-year-old son, Pedaya, recounted the terrifying attack, which left the family’s vehicle overturned.
“They shot at us from my sister’s side. She was sitting to my left,” Pedaya told the Times of Israel on Friday. “And then Dad suddenly stopped moving and the car overturned.”
Pedaya, whose mother and 14-year-old sister were seriously wounded, said Palestinian passers-by had helped them escape.
“Arabs succeeded in opening the door and took us out and put us in [another] car so that nothing will happen to us,” the boy told the news site.
Israeli paramedic Zaki Yahav said: “It was a very grave picture. We saw a vehicle turned over on its roof, a vehicle carrying four family members. Inside the car was a man in his 40s. He was unconscious, no pulse or respiration, and suffered gunshot wounds as well as injuries from the accident.”
Mark’s nephew Elhanan Kalmanson said: “Miki said more than once that in these cases [of terror victims] we always see that . . . the best of the best are chosen. How right he was. There was no one better than Miki.”
The West Bank closure was “intended to break the chain of lethal attacks,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an army spokesman, told AFP.
“The physical presence will also disrupt, prevent and foil additional attacks, inspired by the attackers of the last 48 hours.”
In Gaza, the IDF launched airstrikes Saturday against four training sites belonging to militant Hamas rulers.
Late Friday, a rocket from Gaza struck an empty kindergarten in the border community of Sderot.
The rocket strike was “a horrific reminder of the intentions of terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to target communities, people, men, women and children,” Lerner said.
At least 214 Palestinians, 34 Israelis and two Americans have been killed in a wave of violence since October.
