Following a weekend of violence, tensions in the area increased as one Israeli-American citizen was killed in the occupied West Bank.
On a roadway between Jericho and the Dead Sea, Elan Ganeles, 27, was shot and killed on Monday night in what Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency agency called a “terror incident.”
According to the MDA, the attack happened on Highway 90, north of the Beit Ha’Arava Junction.
The area is often calm and is near one of Israel’s primary Dead Sea travel routes.
His Connecticut-based synagogue, which announced that he would be laid to rest in Israel on Wednesday, gave Ganeles his given name.
His death came after a mob of Israeli settlers went on a rampage Sunday in Huwara, south of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing one Palestinian, beating others with metal bars, and stoning a Palestinian fire engine after burning several homes.
Those attacks followed the fatal shooting of two Israeli brothers earlier on Sunday in Huwara, days after a massive Israeli military raid into Nablus in search of wanted militants left at least 11 Palestinians dead.
The US State Department said it was “extremely concerned by the events of this weekend and the continuing violence in Israel and the West Bank.”
Spokesman Ned Price on Monday reiterated the US’ condemnation of the killings of Israelis over the weekend and the violence by settlers against Palestinians.
“We appreciate Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and President [Isaac] Herzog’s statements calling for a cessation of vigilante violence. We expect the Israeli government to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks, in addition to compensation for the lost homes and property,” Price said. “These events underscore the fragility of the situation in the West Bank and the urgent need for increased cooperation to prevent further violence.”
An Israel Defense Forces official condemned Sunday’s attacks by Israeli settlers as acts of “revenge” and “terror,” and said the IDF was sending three additional battalions to the area to try to deescalate the situation.