“Terrorists arrived at the entrance to the city and fired at the guard in his guard post,” the Israeli army said in a statement about the attack on the guard. Emergency services have confirmed that the man in his twenties died from his injuries.
The attackers allegedly escaped in a getaway car. Soldiers have launched a search for the perpetrators. Roads in the area are closed for that reason.
Hamas, which operates in Gaza, has hailed the attack on the Israeli guard as a “heroic operation to conclude the Islamic month of Ramadan.” In a statement, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem speaks of a retaliation over new clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police around the al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. 42 people were injured on Friday, 22 of whom had to be taken to hospital.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, in the town of Azzun, a man was also shot and killed by Israeli troops on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry. It is not known whether the two deadly attacks are related.
Dozens of people have been killed in mutual violence since the end of March. Tensions have run high since the start of Ramadan and there were also disturbances around Easter and Passover. On Tuesday, a Palestinian man was shot dead by the Israeli army during a raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank.