A female Israeli soldier was killed and a civilian security guard seriously injured in a shooting attack on a military checkpoint near the Shuafat refugee camp outside of Jerusalem. The dead soldier was identified early Sunday morning as Sgt. Noa Lazar, 18, of Bat Hefer in northern Israel, a member of the Military Police’s Erez battalion. The civilian security guard, 30, underwent brain surgery and remains unconscious and on a respirator at Jerusalem’s Hadassah-University Medical Center on Mount Scopus.
On Saturday evening, a Palestinian gunman was driven to the checkpoint, exited the car and fired on the security forces there, and then fled on foot toward Shuafat as the car drove away in the other direction. Two Border Police officers were lightly injured by shrapnel. There reportedly were celebratory fireworks shot in Shuafat after the attack.
Israeli security forces have put Shuafat under lockdown as the hunt for the shooter continues. Three suspects in their 20s from Shuafat and Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem and Anata in the West Bank have been arrested, and three members of the shooter’s family also have been arrested, according to reports. The driver has turned himself in, as well, but is not believed to have been aware he was transporting an attacker. The shooter has not yet been apprehended.
Meanwhile, at least two Palestinian teens were killed by Israeli troops in Jenin in the West Bank during an arrest raid.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement that he received the news of the death of Lazar “with a broken heart.” He added: “We will not rest until we bring these heinous murderers to justice.”