J Street is devastated by the two deadly terror attacks against Israeli civilians in the West Bank over the past 48 hours.
On Monday, a woman was killed and a man seriously injured when their car was targeted by a horrific drive-by shooting near the Beit Hagai settlement south of Hebron. The woman’s 12-year-old daughter was also in the car. On Saturday, a father and son were shot and killed while at a carwash in a shooting attack in the northern West Bank town of Huwara, the site of repeated, violent clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli settlers.
Our hearts are with the victims and their families as we hope for the speedy recovery of the injured. We hope the perpetrators of both appalling attacks are apprehended swiftly and brought to justice. Horrific acts of violence and terror, and threats of more attacks, bring only misery and pain and do nothing to advance shared hopes for a just, free and equal future.
We urge authorities to follow a path of calm and de-escalation. We note that reprisal attacks on Palestinian civilians, as have occurred in Huwara, and Israeli officials’ calls to build yet more settlements in response will only feed the cycle of violence and conflict, making the jobs of security forces more challenging and leading to more devastation for Israelis and Palestinians alike.