Two killed, one wounded in a terror shooting in the West Bank

The shooter entered a factory building and shot at two women and one man before fleeing. He can be seen in security footage running away from the scene with a rifle in his hand.

The IDF said it is looking into the security breach that enabled him to bring a weapon into the industrial park.

MDA Paramedics David Baruhi and Neria Tekoa said, “Upon arriving to the scene, ‘we found complete chaos. We were told that there were injured inside the building, and upon entering, we found a man and woman in one of the rooms, where they were unresponsive with no pulse and not breathing.

“Following a medical assessment we were forced to pronounce them deceased.

“We searched the scene and found another 54-year-old woman under one of the tables. She was fully responsive with a gunshot wound to her upper body. With the help of MDA EMT Hadas Wilps, we extricated her and provided lifesaving medical treatment including hemorrhage control, medications, and we evacuated her to Belinson [Hospital in Petah Tikva] with severe yet stable injuries.”

“During the evacuation, she was interacting with us, and was able to recount the incident. She also requested that we notify her family, which we did.”,” the paramedics said.

“We are declaring this a terror attack, one hundred percent, but there could be other reasons behind it,” Manelis said.

Posts on the shooter’s terrorist page helped the IDF make such a declaration.

Minister Of Defense Avigdor Liberman wrote on his Twitter account that it was only a matter of time until the IDF would catch the assailant.

“The IDF and the security forces are conducting a wide-scale hunt for the terrorist who committed the serious attack in Barkan, and it is only a matter of time before we get him into our hands,” he tweeted.

צה”ל וכוחות הביטחון מנהלים מצוד נרחב אחר המחבל בן הבליעל שביצע את הפיגוע הקשה בברקן. זה רק עניין של זמן עד שנשים עליו את היד.

— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) October 7, 2018

Israel’s security forces will find and bring to justice the terrorist who killed two Israelis and wounded a third in a shooting attack in the Barkan Industrial area on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu called the incident a “very grave terrorist attack, and said he was certain that the terrorist will be apprehended.

Netanyahu sent condolences to the family of the murdered Israelis, and wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded.
This was the second fatal terrorist attack in three weeks.

Checkpoints in the Samaria region were closed in order to catch the shooter.

The IDF said that its as sending additional troops into the West Bank in the aftermath of the attacks. It had adding that during 2018 it had confiscated 330 weapons from Palestinians, 100 of which were taken in the last month alone.

President Reuven Rivlin said of the attack, “”I am shocked and saddened by this morning’s terrible terrorist attack at the Barkan industrial area. Our hearts are with the families of those who were killed, and our prayers are with those who are injured. 

“This was not only an attack on innocent people going about their daily lives, it was also an attack on the possibility of Israelis and Palestinians co-existing peacefully.

“I call on the Palestinian leadership to condemn this murderous attack and to use the forces at their disposal to capture the terrorist and those who aided him.

“Our thanks to the medics who gave quick and live-saving assistance, and to the IDF and security forces who are ensuring the perpetrators are apprehended. We will not rest until every one of them is brought to justice,” he said.

These were the eighth and ninth terrorist murders this year. According to Foreign Ministry records, in 2017, 19 people were killed in terrorist attacks, 20 in 2016 and 30 in 2015.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein likened this attack to the one last month in the Gush Etzion junction, in which Ari Fuld, an Israeli-American man was stabbed in the back in the parking lot of a supermarket.

The junction, like the Barkan Industrial Park is open to both Israelis and Palestinians.

It was “unfortunate and disappointing to see a terrorist, for the second time in a short period, do damage to a prosperous areas of coexistence such as the Barkan industrial zone and the shopping mall in Gush Etzion where Ari Fuld was murdered.

“The appropriate response to the murderous attack in Barkan is to continue to strengthen the joint industrial zones. We shall not allow abominable terrorists to harm coexistence,” he said.

The Barkan industrial zone has 164 factories and employees 7,200 workers, including 4,200 Palestinians and 3,000 Israelis, according to the Samaria Regional Council that that has jurisdiction over the park. There are an additional 60 factories on a waiting list to enter the park, the council said.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said that the extreme Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has targeted parks such as this one hat serve as bridges of co-existence.

“I see Arabs and Jews here sitting and crying together,” Dagan said.

“This event is difficult, but it will not break us,” he added.