Brazilian Tourist Wounded in Drive-By Shooting; Attacker Shot and Killed in Arrest Operation

A wanted Palestinian gunman was shot and killed in the early hours of Sunday morning, during an operation that followed two separate shootings in Judea and Samaria over the weekend. A Brazilian citizen was injured in one of the incidents.

The Border Police counter-terrorism unit Yamam shot dead the suspect in the weekend shootings when he pulled out an automatic weapon and attempted to open fire at them.

The dead man was named as Aamar Ahmad Halil, 34 from Nebi Salah, a Palestinian village between Ramallah and Al-Bireh. An additional suspect was arrested.

Overnight Friday, a Brazilian citizen driving a car with an Israeli license plate was lightly wounded in a drive-by shooting near Neve Tzuf in southern Samaria. On Saturday night, shots were fired at a military pillbox near Nebi Salah. No injuries were reported in the incident.

According to the Ma’an News Agency the Brazilian man said he “survived by a miracle after a Palestinian fired three gunshots at his car from a speeding car.”

The man, named as Nasser Nael said he was originally from the Ramallah-area village of Beitin but currently resides in Brazil, and was driving to Ben Gurion Airport when the gunman opened fire from a vehicle driving toward him in the opposite direction.

Following an intelligence operation, a joint force from the Border Police counterterrorism unit, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the IDF Binyamin Division attempted to apprehend the suspect.

An IDF spokesman said that operation showed that “there would be no refuge for anyone attempting to harm civilians and that the long arm of the Israeli security forces would apprehend anyone engaged in terrorism.”