War on terror: Killers nabbed, Damascus struck

Terrorists who shot dead Jewish mother near Hebron arrested; Israel Air Force hits Hezbollah base near Syrian capital.

By Israel Today Staff | | Topics: War on Terror
Israeli security forces at the entrance to Hebron following deadly shooting attack on Route 60, Aug. 21, 2023. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.
Israeli security forces at the entrance to Hebron following deadly shooting attack on Route 60, Aug. 21, 2023. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.

Israeli forces on Tuesday arrested two Palestinians suspected of involvement in the terrorist murder of an Israeli woman the previous day.

The suspects, who were not immediately named, were captured in Hebron, along with the M-16 rifle believed to have been used in the attack.

Batsheva Nigri, a kindergarten teacher from Beit Hagai, was killed when terrorists opened fire on her vehicle on Route 60, close to the Beit Hagai Junction. Another individual, identified as Aryeh Leib, was seriously wounded in the attack.

Leib is being treated at Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center, where his condition has been stabilized.

Nigri’s young daughter, one of three children, who was in the back seat of the car at the time of the attack was not injured.

The vehicle was hit by at least 22 rounds, with another three bullets impacting nearby, according to a preliminary military probe.

“The terrorists who brutally murdered Batsheva Nigri will spend the rest of their days in prison. We will take all measures to strengthen our security. We will pursue and find our enemies,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday.

In a statement published on Monday afternoon, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed “militia” of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Hamas praised the killing, describing it as “part of the religious war over holy places and against Zionist projects” in Judea and Samaria.

On Monday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged the Islamic Republic of Iran with orchestrating the most recent surge in Palestinian terrorism.

“We are in the midst of a terror onslaught that is being encouraged, directed and financed by Iran and its proxies,” said Netanyahu following a situational assessment near Hebron.

The comments were echoed by IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, who declared Monday that Israel is “in the middle of an escalation, a terror wave, the likes of which we have not seen in a long time.”

On Saturday, a Palestinian terrorist shot and killed two Israelis in Huwara, located just outside Nablus in Samaria.

The victims, Shay Silas Nigrekar, 60, and his 28-year-old son Aviad Nir, were residents of Ashdod.

Israeli Border Police officers conducted an arrest raid in Beita, near Nablus (Shechem), on Monday and apprehended a suspect in that deadly terrorist attack.

Earlier this month, a Palestinian terrorist killed Israeli Chen Amir, 42, in the heart of Tel Aviv.

So far in 2023, Palestinian terrorists have killed 34 people (33 Israelis and an Italian tourist) in Israel and committed almost 200 shooting attacks in Judea and Samaria.

 

Strike on Damascus

In related news, Israel struck several targets in the Damascus area on Monday night, wounding a Syrian soldier and causing material damage, according to official Syrian media.

According to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, the strikes came from the direction of the Golan Heights.

Israel has allegedly struck hundreds of targets in Syria in recent years as part of an effort to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in the country. However, it rarely acknowledges these incidents.

On Aug. 7, four Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed and four others wounded in an Israeli missile strike near Damascus.

A week later, unexplained “violent explosions” rocked the Syrian capital, with the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting that the blasts had destroyed an arms depot belonging to Iranian-backed groups.

The group did not directly attribute blame to Israel.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu visited Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights Observation Point.

“It is pleasant to be here in the sunshine and see the wonderful development of the Golan Heights, which we all have worked on, to see our soldiers… and really to know that we are walking on land that will be under Israeli sovereignty forever,” said the prime minister.

“This was not self-evident a few decades ago when I served here. Today it is understood by everyone—and this is important,” he added.

With reporting by JNS.

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