Two Israeli women were fatally shot in the West Bank on Friday, and now Israel has sent troops to its borders. The event comes amid police being ordered to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has raised concerns about growing conflict in the area.
According to the Washington Post, Israeli defense officials said that two Israeli sisters were killed and their mother was critically injured during the shooting, which is being investigated as a terrorist attack.
The shooting comes after it was reported that 34 rockets were fired toward Israel from Lebanon on Thursday. However, Israel managed to safely take down 24 of them using its Iron Dome defense system. Israel responded to the attack on Friday, per Reuters.
During Friday’s shooting in the West Bank, two Israeli sisters were reportedly killed when their vehicle came under fire around the Jewish settlement of Hamra, per Reuters.
Consequently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that his country was holding a security assessment. A Palestinian militant group Hamas reportedly celebrated the shooting attack but did not take responsibility for it.
An Israeli army spokesman said: “Nobody wants an escalation right now. Quiet will be answered with quiet, at this stage I think, at least in the coming hours.”
An official with a Palestinian militant group echoed the spokesman’s words, suggesting that they were willing to keep calm so long as Israel did not act out, saying that group had gotten its message across.
On Friday, the Israeli military struck sites in Lebanon and Gaza, retaliating for the 34 rockets that had come from Lebanon. Israel subsequently blamed the Islamist group Hamas for the initial attacks, but no one initially took responsibility for the attack.
Lebanon was apparently motivated to fire rockets after it was found that Israeli police had raided the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, with the authorities claiming that they were snuffing out rebels in the midst.
Reuters reported that Israel had struck “three Hamas infrastructure targets in southern Lebanon,” with residents nearby saying that they heard three loud blasts ring out.
Hamas said: “We strongly condemn the blatant Zionist aggression against Lebanon in the vicinity of Tyre at dawn today.”
