Email
An Israeli soldier was shot dead on Sunday during a Jewish festival in the West Bank city of Hebron, a hotbed of tension where some 500 Israeli settler families live among 100,000 Palestinians.
He was the second Israeli serviceman killed since Friday by suspected Palestinian gunmen as tensions rise in the occupied territory despite a resumption of US-brokered peace talks in July.
Military spokesmen said the soldier had died in a hospital in Jerusalem after being shot in the neck while on patrol near the Tomb of Abraham, a Jewish and Islamic holy site in Hebron.
The attack occurred as the city was packed with Jewish visitors for a week-long Jewish festival. Israeli media said crowds were ushered away from the site as troops hunted for the perpetrator.
Hebron has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians seek statehood in the West Bank, which Israel captured in a 1967 war.
"Shots were fired near the Machpela Cave," police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said earlier, using the Hebrew name for the holy site, adding that police believed the perpetrator was Palestinian.
On Saturday, Israeli authorities said a soldier had been killed by a Palestinian who had lured him to his hometown in the West Bank. A suspect has been arrested.
A week ago a Palestinian militant was killed in a confrontation with Israeli forces, the fourth Palestinian fatality since July, and one of about two dozen fatalities since the start of the year.
