Six injured after Palestinian gunman opens fire in Israeli settlement

A Palestinian gunman opened fire in an Israeli settlement towards the east of Jerusalem on Tuesday, wounding at least six people.

Israeli police said the attacker was then shot and killed by an off-duty officer.

The shooting happened outside a shopping mall in the sprawling Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim in the occupied West Bank.

It is the latest in the most violent stretch of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the territory in nearly two decades.

The Palestinian assailant, who was dressed as a security guard, was shot and killed by an off-duty Israeli police officer who had heard gunshots and rushed to the scene.

The Israeli police said the attacker wounded six civilians, who were in a “light-to-moderate” condition.

Fighting in the West Bank intensified early last year after Israel launched near-nightly raids into Palestinian areas in response to a spate of attacks against Israelis.

The violence spiked this year, with more than 150 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of 2023 in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Israel says that most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the raids and others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

At least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that time.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.