A 17-year-old Palestinian was killed and at least 10 were wounded by IDF troops in the West Bank village of Beit Ummar, Palestinian sources said on Friday. Eyewitnesses said that the Palestinian youth was hit after IDF troops opened fire at village residents who were hurling stones at the forces and Israeli vehicles. The IDF said that clashes occurred during searches in the village, which were being conducted as a follow up to Thursday's terrorist attack in a high school in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion. Palestinian sources said that IDF troops entered the village in order to conduct searches in terrorists' homes.
Earlier, Hamas's military wing, Izzadin al-Kassam, claimed responsibility for Thursday evening's terror attack at a Gush Etzion high-school, Army Radio reported Friday. According to Palestinian sources, the two terrorists, Muhammad and Mahmoud Samarna, were cousins and both Hamas affiliates from the Beit Ummar village north of Hebron. A senior government official said that the two terrorists were released last week from an Israeli prison after they had finished their time in prison for attempting to steal weapons.
On Thursday evening, the two terrorists were killed after infiltrating the Mekor Hayim High School Yeshiva in Kfar Etzion, south of Jerusalem. The terrorists, armed with knives and a pistol, infiltrated the kibbutz - in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc - and sneaked into a building used by the high school, run by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. They entered a classroom where counselors were holding a meeting, and stabbed two of them. Two of the counselors were armed and managed to overpower and kill the terrorists, without giving them a chance to fire their pistol, a Hatzallah spokesman said.