Israel: Forces kill Palestinian who shot dead female soldier

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman who killed an Israeli soldier earlier this month was shot dead Wednesday after opening fire at a security guard at a West Bank settlement near Jerusalem, Israel’s prime minister said.

Yair Lapid said Uday Tamimi, from the Shuafat refugee camp near Jerusalem who was the subject of a more than weeklong manhunt, was killed by Israeli security forces.

Police commander Uzi Levy told reporters that Tamimi opened fire at security guards at the entrance of Maale Adumim, a sprawling Israeli settlement in the West Bank east of Jerusalem. Levy said that Tamimi was armed with a pistol and was carrying an explosive device.

Paramedics said a security guard was treated for a gunshot wound to the hand.

On Oct. 8, Tamimi allegedly fired at a checkpoint from close range, killing a 19-year-old female Israeli soldier and severely wounding a security guard before disappearing toward Shuafat. Israeli security forces placed a cordon around the refugee camp in east Jerusalem as the manhunt dragged on for days.

Related video: Israeli says its forces killed Palestinian who shot dead female soldier

Lapid said that Israel “will act with a heavy hand and not hesitate against terror.”

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the militant Hamas group that controls Gaza, said the killing of Tamimi will not stop the uprising in the West Bank.

Tamimi “will remain a national Palestinian icon,” he said.

It was the latest clash in a wave of violence between Israeli security forces and Palestinians since the spring, when Israel began conducting regular raids into the West Bank and east Jerusalem following a series of Palestinian attacks that killed 19 people inside Israel.

More than 120 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2015. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The area is now home to roughly 500,000 Israeli settlers. The international community widely considers the settlements illegal and obstacles to peace.

The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, for a future independent state.