(Bloomberg) -- A car exploded at a West Bank petrol station and another after crashing into a nearby Israeli settlement in what authorities described as terrorist attacks by assailants who were both killed.
The incidents came amid intensifying operations by the Israeli military in the West Bank, including sweeps targeting Iranian-backed Palestinian armed groups elsewhere in the territory.
No one was reported injured in the blast that followed a fire in the vehicle at Gush Etzion junction, but the army said in a statement that a man who emerged from it was shot and “eliminated” while trying to attack first-responders. Medics said they treated two people for gunshot injuries.
In the second incident, a motorist tried to ram a guard at the entrance to Karmei Tzur settlement and made it inside, where he was “neutralised” by troops, according to the army statement. Medics said that car exploded with the driver in it after it collided with a second vehicle, injuring a man.
The assailants’ identities were not immediately clear. The army said it was unable to determine immediately whether the two incidents were connected.
The West Bank has experienced increased Israeli-Palestinian violence since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip in October. Israel says Iran, which sponsors Gaza’s dominant Hamas militants, is trying to foment an insurgency in the West Bank, where the Palestinian economy has suffered from military closures.
In an operation launched early on Wednesday in northerly West Bank towns near the boundary with Israel, the military said it had killed 20 Palestinian fighters, including from Hamas, and detained 17 suspects.
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