Sgt. Yosef Cohen

December 13, 2018: Sgt. Yosef Cohen, 20, was shot and killed by a Palestinian gunman in a shooting attack close to the illegal colony of Ofra, near Ramallah, in central West Bank.

He and another Israeli soldier were killed, and two Israeli settlers were wounded in the attack.

The shooting took place at the hitchhiking section of Givat Assag, in the Benyamin Regional Council of Settlements, between Beit El and Ofra, illegal colonies.

Israeli sources said Magen David Adom national emergency medics rushed to the scene, and provided treatment to the two wounded soldiers.

One of the soldiers, who suffered a severe gunshot wound to the head, was rushed to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital, and a woman was taken to Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center, in occupied Jerusalem, suffering serious wounds.

The army said, according to its initial investigation, the shooter got out of a vehicle, before approaching the hitchhiking station, and opened fire at the people waiting there, then ran back to the car, where another man was behind the wheel, and both managed to escape unharmed.

The two wounded settlers are in their twenties.

Following the incident, dozens of colonialist Israeli settlers invaded the eastern area of ‘Asira al-Qibliya village, south of Nablus, before the Palestinians intercepted them, leading to confrontations.

The Israeli army also closed the Qalqilia-Nablus road, and installed dozens of roadblocks around Nablus, before stopping and searching hundreds of cars, and imposed a tight siege on Ramallah governorate.

In addition, the soldiers closed Huwwara military roadblock, south of Nablus, and prevented the Palestinians from crossing, while groups of colonialist settlers hurled stones at many Palestinian cars.

It is worth mentioning that, at 1 am on Thursday, a squadron of soldiers and police officers invaded Nablus, surrounded the house where a Palestinian suspected of killing two Israeli settlers a month earlier, was believed to be hiding, and shot and killed the man, who was identified as Ashraf Waleed Suleiman Na’alwa, 23.

On Thursday at dawn, the soldiers killed a Palestinian, identified as Majd Mteir, 26, in the al-Waad Street, in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, after he reportedly stabbed and injured two Israeli police officers.

On Wednesday evening, undercover Israeli soldiers assassinated a Palestinian Taxi driver, identified as Saleh Omar Saleh Barghouthi, 29, near Surda village, north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah; the army claimed the Palestinian was allegedly “involved” in the shooting targeting colonialist settlers, the previous Sunday.

Yosef was originally from Beit Shemesh. Source: IMEMC