By Associated Press - Friday, August 16, 2019

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli police fatally shot a Palestinian man Friday after he drove his car into two Israeli pedestrians in the West Bank, injuring them, and militants from the Gaza Strip fired at least one rocket toward southern Israel, the Israeli military said.

Israel’s national rescue service, known as Magen David Adom, said a man was severely hurt by the car and a woman was moderately injured. Army radio reported the victims’ ages as 17 and 19.

The incident took place near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, south of Jerusalem, not far from where the body of an off-duty soldier was found stabbed earlier this month. Israel last week arrested Palestinian suspects in the killing of the 18-year-old soldier, Dvir Sorek.

On Thursday, Israeli police killed a Palestinian teenager and seriously wounded another after the two teens stabbed guards near a flashpoint Jerusalem site.

On Friday evening, the Israeli army said its missile defense system known as Iron Dome intercepted a rocket that was fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

There were no reports of injuries and no Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Israel usually blames the militant Hamas group for any violence emanating from the coastal enclave it has controlled since 2007.

In response, Israeli aircraft hit two underground Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip, the military said early Saturday. No casualties were reported.

Earlier Friday, Gaza’s health ministry said 32 Palestinian protesters were wounded by Israeli live fire at several sections along the perimeter fence separating the territory from Israel.

Hamas launched a weekly protest movement in March last year to highlight the plight of Gaza’s 2 million residents under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Violent incidents in the West Bank and tensions between Jews and Muslims at a Jerusalem’s holy site for both religions often cause some cross-border violence in Gaza.

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