A former Palestinian presidential guard has killed three Israeli police officers in a shooting attack near the Palestinian city of Tarqumiyah in the southern West Bank.
The incident, which took place near the Idhna-Tarqumiyah junction of Route 35 on Sept. 1, involved a 31-year-old Palestinian gunman named Muhannad al-Aswad from Idhna. Al-Aswad, a former member of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Presidential Guard and affiliated with the Fatah political party, opened fire at a police vehicle from a passing car and fled the scene on foot.
Al-Aswad, a resident of Idhna in Hebron, was born in Jordan and returned to the West Bank in 1998 with his family. He served in the Palestinian Presidential Guard until he resigned in 2015. He has been working with Fatah, the main political party in power in the West Bank, since then. (Related: IDF recovers 6 bodies of Israeli hostages from Gaza tunnels.)
As of now, it remains unclear if other accomplices were involved in the attack.
Al-Aswad's victims were identified as Ch. Insp. Arik Ben Eliyahu, 37; Command Sgt. Maj. Hadas Branch, 53; and First Sgt. Roni Shakuri, 61.
Ben Eliyahu, from Kiryat Gat, was survived by his wife and three children. Branch, from Sde Moshe, left behind her husband, three children and a granddaughter. Shakuri, from Sderot, was survived by his wife, daughter and granddaughter. Tragically, Shakuri's daughter, also a police officer, was killed during Hamas' attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Magen David Adom, Israel's main national emergency service, treated the three victims immediately after the shooting. Ben Eliyahu and Branch were declared dead at the scene, while Shakuri died en route to a hospital.
Al-Aswad killed by Israeli soldiers the same day he killed the police officers
In response to the shooting, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a manhunt later that same day.
The operation, conducted by the Duvdevan Commando Unit, involved a tactic known as "pressure cooker," in which the soldiers escalated the intensity of fire to force a suspect out of hiding. Israeli soldiers located and cornered al-Aswad in a house in Hebron. The soldiers repeatedly opened fire and threw a grenade into the building.
After a brief exchange of fire, soldiers removed the body of a man from inside the house and confirmed that it was Al-Aswad. Soldiers stated that Al-Aswad was killed during the exchange of fire and an M16 rifle was found on his body.
This attack happened amid heightened tensions in the West Bank, where the IDF and other Israeli security forces illegally occupying the West Bank are engaged in a military operation called "Summer Camps." The operation has seen the Israeli military advancing into cities and refugee camps in the northern West Bank, including Jenin and Tulkarm, while facing significant resistance from Palestinian factions.
The operation has led to severe restrictions on Palestinian movement in these areas, with the Israeli forces enforcing a strict siege on Jenin, where many families have been forcibly displaced.
Learn more about the conflict in Israel at IsraelCollapse.com.
Watch this report from Al Jazeera discussing Hezbollah's recent missile barrage involving over 200 rockets aimed at military installations in Israel.
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