Four Israelis injured in riots following couple’s killing in West Bank

An Israeli police officer, three Jewish settlers and two Palestinians were injured in riots and clashes in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

A Palestinian rioter hit the officer from the Israel Police’s Border Police division in his head on Friday, Army Radio reported, during confrontations near the Lions’ Gate in Jerusalem.

Earlier on Friday, two Israelis sustained minor injuries when Palestinians hurled stones at them near the West Bank settlement of Ofra. Separately, a young Israeli woman was lightly wounded in a similar incident at the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.

According to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, a Palestinian man was injured on Friday as settlers opened fire at a junction south of Bethlehem. Walid Khalid Qawwar, 35, from the town of Aida was moderately injured, Ma’an reported based on a paramedic’s account.

The incidents occurred after the slaying on Thursday evening of two Israelis, Na’ama and Eitam Henkin, near Itamar in the West Bank. Thousands attended their funeral, including Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

The president said settlement construction in the West Bank would continue. “We didn’t build because of terror, and we won’t stop building because of it,” he remarked.

Before the killings, a Palestinian man identified by Ma’an as Samih Ali Abed Sabah, 28, was injured in the thigh from shots fired at him by Border Police officers near the West Bank village of Tuqu. He sustained minor to moderate injuries.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered the deployment of four infantry battalions around West Bank Jewish sites following the killings.