Israeli forces shoot Palestinian gunman dead: army

JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers and police on an arrest mission in the town of Nabi Salah in the West Bank shot dead a Palestinian who attempted to open fire at them early Sunday, the army said.

"The forces encountered the suspect, who attempted to open fire at them," a statement from the Israeli army read. "In response to the immediate threat forces fired towards the attacker resulting in his death."

Palestinian security forces identified the suspect as 34-year-old Amar Dagharah from Kafr Ein, a town near Nabi Salah in the central West Bank. Another Palestinian suspect was lightly wounded and arrested, the statement from the military read.

On Saturday, a gunman targeted a vehicle near an Israeli settlement north of Ramallah and wounded a foreign national of Palestinian descent who is residing in a Palestinian village.



In a separate incident, gunshots hit a military post near Nabi Salah. The army said Dagharah was behind both incidents.

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of at least 282 Palestinians or Arab Israelis, 44 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP toll.

Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead in protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. The violence has greatly subsided in recent months.