Israeli Forces Arrest 2 Palestinian Suspects in Killing of Security Guard

Israeli forces on Saturday evening arrested two Palestinians suspected of killing an Israeli security guard in the West Bank settlement of Ariel on Friday night, the Shin Bet security agency said. The men, named in Palestinian media as Samih Assi and Yahya Mir’i, both 20, were arrested in the West Bank village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, around 7 kilometers northwest of Ariel and 11 kilometers east of the Green Line that separates Israel from the West Bank. On Friday night, two Palestinians arrived at the western entrance to Ariel and opened fire with Carlo submachine guns on the post where Vyacheslav Golev and his fiancée, Victoria Fligelman, were on guard duty. Golev, 23, from Beit Shemesh, Israel, shielded Fligelman with his body, saving her. One of the attackers then stabbed Golev and the two attackers drove away. The car used in the attack was later found burnt out in nearby Salfit. The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed group affiliated with Fatah, the ruling party in the West Bank, claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as “a response to Israeli aggression in Jerusalem.”

Also on Saturday night, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man, Yahya Adwan, 27, during an operation in the West Bank village of Azzun, about 7 kilometers from Qalqilya, after Adwan, a former security prisoner, allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at the soldiers.