The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, one of the main militant groups operating in the Israeli-occupied territories, claimed responsibility for the shootings, which, along with the killing of a Palestinian, led to a deadly clash on Friday marked by clashes at the scene. Jerusalem. Aksa mosque complex. The Israeli army said the guard was on duty at the entrance to Ariel settlement on Friday night when gunmen opened fire, wounding him deadly. He was later identified as 23-year-old Vyacheslav Golev. “After intense activity of information and business services from [domestic security agency] “Sin Beth, the special police forces and the army, two suspects were arrested this afternoon,” police said after a manhunt. The gunman was arrested in the Palestinian village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, northwest of Ariel, the army said. “No terrorist will escape us,” said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, following the news of the suspects’ arrest. Defense Minister Benny Ganz said on Twitter that “the state of Israel always defeats terrorism and will do whatever it takes to defeat it today.” The group responsible for the attack is the armed wing of the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “We take responsibility for the heroic operation in the Ariel colony in which a Zionist officer was killed in response to violations committed by the occupying government in Jerusalem,” the group said in a statement. The military said it had strengthened its presence in the West Bank, with security forces making arrests and seizing weapons in Bruqin, west of Ariel, and in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said a Palestinian was shot dead Friday night in an Israeli army operation in the northwestern city of Azzun, 12 miles from the village of Ariel. An army spokesman told AFP the operation was linked to Ariel’s hunt. Palestinian news agency Wafa has identified the man as 27-year-old Yahya Adwan. Palestinian and Israeli soldiers clashed after Adwan’s funeral on Saturday, with the Red Crescent saying three Palestinians had been shot in the leg with live ammunition. The Israeli army said “dozens of Palestinians instigated a violent uprising near the city of Azzun” and attacked soldiers “who responded with riot gear and live ammunition.” The violence in the West Bank came after 42 people were injured in clashes on Friday between Palestinians and Israeli police at the al-Aqsa mosque complex, a site worshiped by Muslims and Jews, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The unrest erupted on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, bringing the number of Palestinians injured to nearly 300 in two weeks of fighting in the region to nearly 300. The al-Aqsa Mosque complex is located in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War, along with the West Bank, and later annexed in a move not recognized by much of the international community. Israel has since built settlements in the West Bank that are considered illegal under international law, but house about 475,000 Israelis. Violence in East Jerusalem has raised fears of another armed conflict similar to an 11-day war last year between Israel and the Hamas-led Islamist movement in Gaza, which was partly triggered by similar unrest in al-Aqsa. Hamas warned on Saturday of attacks on synagogues and a “major battle” if Israeli forces launched another raid on the al-Aqsa mosque. “Whoever decides to repeat this scene [of a deployment inside the mosque] “It will decide to destroy thousands of synagogues around the world,” said Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip. Tensions in al-Aqsa have escalated since March 22 in Israel and the West Bank. Thirteen Israelis, including an Arab-Israeli policeman, and two Ukrainians have been killed in separate attacks, two of them in the Tel Aviv area. A total of 27 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs were killed during the same period, including the perpetrators of the attacks and those killed by Israeli security forces in operations in the West Bank.
