Update: As of Monday morning, the Israeli military has continued the closure of the entire area around Huwara as its soldiers continue to search for the perpetrator of Saturday’s shooting. The military arrested the owner of the car wash where the attack took place, although there is no indication that he was involved in any way. The army has not identified the perpetrator of Saturday’s shooting, but they have locked down all of the nearby villages and towns and have installed additional checkpoints and raided homes and cars in the area.
On Saturday night, Israeli colonial settlers rampaged in the town of Huwara, throwing rocks at Palestinian pedestrians and vehicles and setting fires, in a scene that brought back memories of the Israeli settler riots in February, in which hundreds of Palestinian homes and cars were burned by Israeli paramilitary settlers. During the February riots, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated that he wanted Huwara to be ‘wiped off the map’, saying it was a ‘hotbed for terrorists’.
In the pre-dawn hours on Sunday morning, Israeli forces stationed in Huwara shot and wounded a masked Israeli paramilitary settler who had been throwing objects at vehicles on Route 60 – a road traveled by both Israeli colonial settlers and indigenous Palestinians.
Updated from: Aug 20, 2023 at 08:00
In the northern occupied West Bank, an unidentified perpetrator, shot and killed, on Saturday, two Israeli men at a car wash, in the town of Huwara, south of Nablus, according to local sources.
On Saturday afternoon, two Israeli men were shot and killed, while they were at a car wash facility, by unknown gunman who fled the scene, in the northern West Bank town of Huwara, south of Nablus.
Media sources said that unknown assailant opened fire, critically injuring an Israeli man and his son.
According to Palestinian sources, Israeli officials initially thought that the victims were Palestinian and did not send an ambulance for thirty minutes.
During that time, a Palestinian ambulance with the Red Crescent emergency response service arrived on the scene and tried to treat the two wounded men. After 30 minutes, an Israeli ambulance with the Magen David Adom ambulance service arrived and took over the resuscitation efforts, which were unsuccessful.
The two men, identified as Shay Silas Nigreker, 60, and his son Aviad Nir, 28, were pronounced dead at the scene. They were residents of Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv, in the southern part of Israel.
According to the Hebrew site “Walla” an Israeli security official stated, “The shooting was very accurate, and it is not clear whether the perpetrator got out of the car and fired or shot from a speeding car.”
In contrast, the Hebrew newspaper, Y Net News, stated that, “The perpetrator of the Huwara operation fired five bullets from zero distance, before withdrawing from the place on foot.”
[Video from QNN]
According to the army’s preliminary investigation, the shooter approached the men on foot, and fired from close range with a handgun.
The Israeli occupation army, in its continued search for the perpetrator, has closed several military roadblocks in the vicinity of Nablus and the town of Huwara, tightening its inspection procedures, causing severe traffic crises.
