Three police officers were killed in a terrorist shooting attack on Route 35 near Hebron on Sunday.Ch.-Insp. Arik Ben Eliyahu, Senior-NCO Hadas Branch, and Adv.-St.-Sgt.-Maj. Roni Shakuri were named as the three police officers murdered in the attack outside of Tarkumiya.Security forces later surrounded the terrorist at his Hebron home, killing him in an exchange of fire, the military and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said.
Ben Eliyahu, 37, from Kiryat Gat, left behind a wife, three children, parents, and two sisters. Branch, 53, of Sde Moshe, left behind a husband, three children, a granddaughter, parents, and five siblings. Shakuri, 61, from Sderot, left behind a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, and three siblings. Shakuri was the father of St.-Sgt.-Maj. Mor Shakuri, who was killed by a Hamas sniper on October 7 while defending the Sderot police station.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for more action against Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank.“We need to do now what we didn’t do that awful night and launch a preemptive strike and strike terrorism hard,” he said, referring to Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack.“We are committed to eliminating terrorism on all fronts,” he said, speaking from the scene of Sunday’s attack.
Earlier, Magen David Adom (MDA) said two men in their 30s and 50s and a woman in her 30s were killed in a terror attack on Route 35 near Tarqumiyah in the West Bank.
Police later reported that the individuals who had been killed were police officers.
The IDF said terrorists had opened fire on a vehicle in the Tarqumiyah area in the West Bank.
Troops hunt for terrorists
Troops were searching for the terrorists, the military added.
Earlier, MDA said its paramedics pronounced the death of a man and a woman in their 30s. In comparison, an additional man in his 50s was in critical condition and was being transferred via helicopter to the Soroka Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
MDA paramedics Tzuriel Edri and David Dahan recounted what they saw upon arrival. “This was a very severe attack. We saw a vehicle with bullet marks."
"Three passengers were extricated from the vehicle: two men and a woman. A male and a female, both around 30 years old, were unconscious with gunshot wounds. They had no pulse and were not breathing. We fought to save their lives," they said, but "After a few minutes, with the help of the IDF medical team, we had to pronounce the death of a woman approximately 30 years old."
"A male, also around 50 years old, who was unconscious and suffered from gunshot wounds, received medical treatment and was evacuated to the helicopter pad, where an MDA helicopter was waiting to transfer him to Soroka Hospital in critical condition while continuing resuscitation efforts. The third male, around 30 years old, was evacuated to the pad, and unfortunately, his death was pronounced there.”
Reuters contributed to this report.