After the near-lynching of a Jewish motorist in the town of Hawara on Route 60 Thursday, the army needs to shut down Arab traffic in the area and reassess its open-fire policy, MK Motti Yogev (Jewish Home) said in an interview with Arutz Sheva.

Earlier on Thursday, a social worker and father of eight from the town of Itamar in Samaria was attacked by hundreds of Arab rioters as he drove home from the supermarket.

The driver’s path was blocked on Route 60 in the town of Hawara, which is built round the road. Unable to escape, the Jewish motorist found himself surrounded by a lynch mob of 200 rioting Arabs who stoned his car and attempted to force their way inside. The driver opened fire on his attackers, killing one terrorist and wounding a second.

“There’s been an apparent escalation in terror attacks on the roads and in other places lately, in Hawara its repeating itself every day at different places,” said Yogev. “This equation where on the one hand there’s a bit of incompetence on the part of army officials and on the other hand citizens are forced to defend themselves, only to be interrogated for hours then have their guns taken away - that’s a dangerous equation that needs to be stopped.”

Citizens, Yogev continued, have every right to defend themselves without fear of reprisal or harassment by the authorities.

“A Jew who is attacked, whether it is by a knife[-wielding terrorist] at Damascus Gate [in the Old City of Jerusalem] or by stones or at roadblocks made to facilitate a lynch inside his car and his life is endangered,” said Yogev, invoking the Talmudic dictum of “whoever comes to kill you, kill him first.”

“That’s basic morality, and all of this business [regarding when people can shoot to save their lives] needs to be much shorter.”

The IDF must reassess its open-fire policies, Yogev argued, taking into account the increased dangers citizens and soldiers alike face from Arab terrorism. Yogev also suggested the army close Route 60 to Arab traffic.

“The IDF needs to get ahold of itself and make sure that the open-fire orders are suitable for the situation, to make sure that there are enough forces on the ground to secure the roads and towns and to close Shechem and close Hawara to Arab traffic. You can’t let the lawbreakers be the ones able to travel there while the victims are the ones prevented from doing so.”</s>NABLUS - A Palestinian was killed by an Israeli settler during a clash near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry and security sources said.

The clash near a military post erupted when an Israeli settler in a car attempted to cross a crowd of Palestinian protesters, with the settler and Israeli soldiers opening fire, Palestinian security sources said.The Palestinian killed was identified by the health ministry as Muataz Bani Shemsay, 23, from a village near Nablus. He was shot in the head, it said.

A photographer with Associated Press news agency was also wounded by gunfire but was in stable condition, medics said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said a “violent riot broke out” that saw Palestinians throw rocks at passing cars.

Soldiers “responded with riot-dispersal means. One of the Israeli citizens whose car was damaged from the rocks fired into the air.” The spokeswoman confirmed one person was killed and another wounded. “From what we understand it is not from (soldiers’) fire, but the incident is still under review,” she said.

Hundreds of Palestinians had gathered at an Israeli military checkpoint at Huwara, south of Nablus and the regular site of clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian stone-throwers.

The protest was held in support of hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails on hunger strike since April 17.

An Israeli settler attempted to drive into the crowd, the security sources said, and was surrounded by protesters who threw stones at the car.

He then got out of the car and opened fire along with soldiers who deployed, the sources said.

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of 264 Palestinians, 41 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, the Israeli authorities say.

Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. The violence has subsided in recent months.</s>A Palestinian was killed by an Israeli settler on Thursday during a clash near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and security sources said.

The clash near a military post erupted when an Israeli settler in a car attempted to cross a crowd of Palestinian protesters, with the settler and Israeli soldiers opening fire, Palestinian security sources said.

The Palestinian killed was identified by the health ministry as Muataz Bani Shemsay, 23, from a village near Nablus. He was shot in the head, it said.

A photographer with Associated Press news agency was also wounded by gunfire but was in stable condition, medics said.

Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hundreds of Palestinians had gathered at an Israeli military checkpoint at Huwara, south of Nablus and the regular site of clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian stone-throwers.

The protest was held in support of hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails on hunger strike since April 17.

An Israeli settler attempted to drive through the crowd, the security sources said, and was surrounded by protesters who threw stones at the car.

He then exited the car and opened fire along with soldiers who were deployed at the scene, according to the sources.

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of 264 Palestinians, 41 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, the Israeli authorities say.

Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The violence has subsided in recent months.</s>Protest with hundreds of Palestinians in support of hunger strikers turns violent after settler opens fire on crowd.

A Palestinian was killed by an Israeli settler during a clash near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank during protests in support of hunger-striking prisoners.

The clash near Hawara military checkpoint in the northern West Bank erupted on Thursday when an Israeli settler in a car attempted to pass through a crowd of Palestinian protesters, with the settler and Israeli soldiers opening fire, Palestinian security sources said.

The Palestinian killed was identified by the health ministry as Muataz Bani Shemsay, 23, from a village near Nablus. He was shot in the head.

A photographer with The Associated Press news agency was also wounded by gunfire but was in stable condition, medics said.

READ MORE: Palestinian hunger strikers: 'They had no choice'

Hundreds of Palestinians had gathered at an Israeli military checkpoint at Huwara, south of Nablus, the regular site of clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian stone-throwers.

The protest was held in support of hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails on hunger strike since April 17.

An Israeli settler attempted to drive into the crowd, the security sources said, and was surrounded by protesters who threw stones at the car.

He then got out of the vehicle and opened fire along with soldiers who deployed, the sources said.

On Thursday evening, hundreds of Palestinians from Al-Amari refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah and nearby Qalandia gathered at a military checkpoint outside Jerusalem.

From behind a barricade of burning tyres and scrap metal they hurled rocks and petrol bombs at soldiers, who responded by firing rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas, AFP news agency journalists at the scene reported.

They were also protesting in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, fasting over demands for improved conditions.

The health of some hunger strikers has already declined, but several on Thursday intensified their protest, saying they would no longer drink.

An Israeli Prisons Service spokesman told AFP "several dozen" hunger strikers were moved from prisons in southern Israel to facilities nearer to hospitals "in case there is a need to move them very, very quickly".

He did not elaborate.

In the Gaza Strip, armed groups pledged "not to remain with arms folded" if fasting prisoners were to meet grave physical harm.

"The enemy only understands the language of force and we are ready to speak in the way they understand best," they said at a news conference.

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of 264 Palestinians, 41 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP count.</s>GAZA, May 19 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli forces in the West Bank and at the border of the Gaza Strip on Friday in their largest confrontation in months and just days before U.S. President Donald Trump is due to arrive in the region.

Protesters took to the streets in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in support of Palestinian prisoners who declared a hunger strike last month to demand better conditions in Israeli jails.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said "violent riots" erupted with hundreds of Palestinians setting tyres ablaze and hurling fire bombs and rocks at Israeli forces.

"The forces responded with crowd control means in order to disperse the riots," the spokeswoman said.

Palestinian officials said five protesters were wounded by live gunfire and 15 hurt by rubber-coated bullets.

In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians gathered and many approached the border fence with Israel.

"Rioters were igniting tyres and hurling rocks," said the Israeli military spokeswoman. "Forces used crowd control means in order to disperse the riots, including firing warning shots into the air and towards main perpetrators."

Eleven Palestinians were wounded by live gunfire, three of them critically, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The clashes come days before Trump arrives in the region, where he will meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Trump has boasted that with his negotiating skills he can bring Israelis and Palestinians together to resolve one of the world's most intractable conflicts and do "the ultimate deal".

But officials on both sides see scant prospects for any major breakthrough in long-stalled peace negotiations during his 24-hour visit on Monday and Tuesday. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ali Sawafta, Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Janet Lawrence)</s>NABLUS, West Bank, May 18 (Reuters) - A Palestinian man was killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when an Israeli settler opened fire as protesters crowded around his car and pelted it with rocks, according to multiple accounts.

A Reuters photographer and other witnesses said hundreds of Palestinians had gathered near the city of Nablus to show support for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails. During their demonstration, they blocked a main road used by both Palestinians and Israeli settlers.

The Israeli military said the Palestinians began throwing rocks at passing vehicles, including one belonging to a settler.

Video footage showed a grey four-door car being forced to a halt in the middle of the road, next to an ambulance, and being bombarded with rocks. The driver can be seen inside, drawing a handgun and firing at least three shots towards the sides of the road, although the target is not clear.

Yossi Dagan, head of the settlers' Samaria regional council, said he had spoken with the settler, who told him he had been in fear of his life when he fired. "He pulled his gun out to defend himself, in order to stop them from lynching him. He fired."

Majdi Mohammed, a Palestinian photographer for the Associated Press who was wounded by the gunshots, described what he saw.

"When the army arrived, he (the settler) started shooting. I had my back turned to him. I put my hand on my head. The one next to me was hit by a bullet in his head, and people said he was killed," he told reporters.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers had arrived to disperse the demonstration. She said the settler in the car had acknowledged firing his gun, and confirmed that one man had been killed and one injured.

The army said it was investigating the incident. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the dead man was a 23-year-old Palestinian.

There have been several clashes in recent days between settlers and Palestinians.

Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East, said that "this deplorable incident must be promptly and thoroughly investigated and all suspected of being involved must be prosecuted".

At least 245 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since a wave of sporadic violence began in 2015 in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Israel says at least 165 of those killed were carrying out stabbings, shootings or car ramming attacks. Others died during clashes and protests.

Thirty-seven Israelis, two American tourists and a British student have been killed in the violence, which has slowed in recent months but not stopped.

Israel says the Palestinian leadership is inciting the violence. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies incitement and says that, in many cases, Israel has used excessive force in thwarting attackers armed with rudimentary weapons. (Reporting by Ali Sawafta; Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Kevin Liffey)</s>JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli settler opened fire on a group of Palestinians throwing rocks at his car, killing one and injuring a journalist.

The shooter, a father of eight from Itamar in the West Bank who was on his way home from the supermarket, said he felt his life was in danger when he opened fire Thursday afternoon into a crowd of 200 Palestinians who were protesting in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, according to reports citing the Israel Defense Forces.

The man and his wife, who also was in the car, told Ynet that the rioters encircled the car and they feared they would be lynched. Both the front and back windshield were smashed and the sides of the car pocked with dents from rocks, according to reports.

The killed Palestinian was identified by the Palestinian Maan news agency as Muataz Hussein Hilal Bani Shamsa, 23, from the Nablus-area village of Beita. He was shot in the head and died of his wounds at the scene. The injured journalist was identified as Associated Press photographer Majdi Eshtiya, who was shot in the hand.

Following the shooting, the Israel Defense Forces broke up the mob using non-lethal riot-dispersal methods, according to reports.

A similar incident occurred the day before near the Palestinian village of Silwad in the West Bank. The Israeli settler who shot and wounded a Palestinian man who threw rocks at his car was detained, but was released after proving it was in self-defense. The Palestinian rock thrower also was detained.</s>While the vast majority of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are Jews - and nearly all their conflicts have been against Arab nations - a trickle of Israeli Arabs volunteer for the army.

Most are Bedouin, a community native to southern Israel. But some are other Arab citizens of Israel, the descendants of Palestinians who remained during the 1948 war of the state's founding, when hundreds of thousands of their brethren fled or were forced from their homes by advancing Israeli troops.

"Why did I decide to enlist?" asks Sergeant Yusef Salutta, a 20-year-old Arab from the north of Israel who serves with the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion. The army rarely grants journalists access to the unit.

"Because I'm from this country and I love the country and I want to contribute," he said. "Everyone should enlist, anybody who lives here should enlist."

The military conscripts young Jewish men and women, but not Arabs. It does not report exact numbers of Arab volunteers, but officials say there are several hundred among the 175,000 active personnel.

A silver Star of David necklace hung around Salutta's neck, and he chatted with fellow-soldiers in Hebrew.

At a time when Israel is expanding its settlements in the West Bank and Palestinians fear they may never end up with their own state, some Israeli Arabs see volunteering for the military as betrayal.

"This phenomenon, we totally reject it," said Ahmad Tibi, an Israeli-Arab member of parliament.

"What could go through a person's mind when he serves against his people? We try to educate people that this is not the way."

Volunteers say their families are supportive, and that they are prepared to take criticism.

"I don't care about them," said Salutta. "I need to be part of the country, to be like everybody else."

The head of the IDF Minorities Unit, Colonel Wajdi Sarhan, said some Israeli-Arabs saw service as a way to improve their chances in life.

"(It) can get easier when you hold an Israeli soldier or reservist ID card," said Sarhan.

"To be a soldier in the army, it's actually an identity certificate of Israeli-ness, which can help integration."

He said some recruits faced threats and harassment at home from fellow Israeli-Arabs. In some cases, they are allowed to travel to and from military duty out of uniform.

When it comes to Israel's decades-old conflict against the Palestinians, there is no question - if they are required to fight, they must.

"I assume that anyone who decided to be a combat soldier in such a unit took this into consideration in advance," said Sarhan.</s>"One of the Israeli citizens whose car was damaged from the rocks fired into the air,"

"From what we understand it is not from [soldiers'] fire, but the incident is still under review."

"There were two incidents over the last couple of days. In the first one, a [settler] having been stoned, got out of his car and shot at the demonstrators who were trying to flee the scene. This is obviously beyond what he had to do in order to rescue himself, so this is doubtful,"

"The other incident today is yet to be disproven, because his version was that he felt that his life was under severe threat and he had to shoot to extricate himself."

A Palestinian was killed by an Israeli settler who shot at protesters who were throwing rocks at his car, the Health Ministry of the Palestinian Territories says. An AP photographer was also injured by the gunfire.The shooting occurred south of the city of Nablus in the occupied Palestinian West Bank on Thursday., when an Israeli settler in a car attempted to drive through the crowd. The protest was held in support of Palestinian prisoners of Israeli jails, who have been on hunger strike since April 17.The Palestinians reportedly surrounded the car and damaged it with stones.A Palestinian identified by the Health Ministry as 23-year-old Muataz Bani Shemsay, resident of a nearby village, died from a gunshot wound to the head. A photographer with Associated Press was injured by gunfire, AFP reports citing Palestinian medics.The Israeli military acknowledged the incident, branding the protest aand confirming the casualties among the Palestinians. A military spokesperson, however, claimed that the soldiers had not used lethal weapons, but onlywhile the settler allegedly only fired into the air.AFP cited the military spokesperson as saying.A settler regional council in the northern West Bank confirmed to Haaretz that the shooter was one of their own.It remained unclear whether his actions would be the subject of any investigation.It's the second such incident in just two days. On Wednesday, a Palestinian allegedly throwing stones at Israeli cars along the West Bank's main highway was shot and slightly injured by an Israeli settler. The settler claimed he had acted in self-defense, as some stones allegedly hit his vehicle.Israeli law enforcement questioned the settler and his friend, who also was in the car and subsequently released them. However, the investigation into their illegal use of a firearm will continue, according to the police.Haaretz newspaper editorial board and columnist Amir Oren told RT.
In a shooting incident near Huwara in the West Bank, a mob of some 200 Arabs hurl stones and rocks toward an Israeli car and try to lynch the driver. The Israeli driver fires his weapon, killing one Palestinian.