‘Israeli’ soldier killed in shooting operation in central ‘Israel’

An ‘Israeli’ reserve soldier was killed in a shooting operation in central ‘Israel’, the ‘Israeli’ military says in an announcement.

He is identified as Master Sgt. (res.) Haim Kalomiti, 55, a reservist soldier in the Ephraim Regional Brigade.

Five others were wounded in multiple shootings in ‘Israel’ on Sunday.

‘Israel's’ emergency service Magen David Adom "provided medical treatment and evacuated to hospitals five injured people, including two in serious condition and three in moderate condition, with penetrating injuries to their bodies".

Police said they had located a vehicle and killed a suspected attacker near the town of Kokhav Yair, a few kilometres away from the occupied West Bank, and that they later arrested an additional suspect.

"During the arrest, the suspect attempted to stab the detectives and was subdued and arrested," the police statement said.

Rescuers said attacks also took place in the nearby towns of Tzur Natan and Tzur Yitzhak.

Police chief Danny Levy told journalists at Tzur Yitzhak that the attacker there was an Arab-‘Israeli’, from the nearby town of Taybeh.

The alleged accomplice was arrested in the nearby Arab ‘Israeli’ town of Tira, police said.

Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was also with the police chief, said that "the law on the death penalty for terrorists also applies to Israeli Arabs".

"If he had been captured, I would have demanded that he be executed. But it is better that he was eliminated beforehand," Ben Gvir said.

The minister was referring to a recently approved ‘Israeli’ law that imposes the death penalty by default on Palestinians from the West Bank convicted on alleged terror charges for deadly anti-‘Israeli’ attacks.

Earlier, Ben Gvir wrote in a social media post: "Jewish blood is not cheap. Whoever murders a Jew will see the hangman's noose."

At the opening of a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the "vile terrorist" who carried out the attack and commended the police officers who "eliminated the terrorist and also apprehended his accomplice."

In the West Bank, local Palestinian sources and the Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that ‘Israeli’ forces closed two checkpoints at entrances to the city of Tulkarem, located north of the scenes of the attacks, and set up a temporary checkpoint at the entrance to nearby Qalqilya.