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HOLIDAY TERROR: Three shooting attacks on Yom Kippur Eve

Four terror attacks, including three shootings, reported across Samaria ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday.

By JNS

Three separate terror shootings were reported in Samaria on Sunday, with no casualties from the incidents that came hours before the start of Yom Kippur.

In the latest attack, terrorists opened fire at the Israeli community of Hinanit, nine miles west of Jenin in northern Samaria. The window of a home was struck during the attack.

Earlier in the day, terrorists shot at a military vehicle near Avnei Hefetz, close to Tulkarm in western Samaria, and before that terrorists opened fire at a military position near the village of Shuweika, which has become part of Tulkarm city.

Also on Sunday, Arab terrorists stoned a vehicle traveling on Route 55 between the Palestinian town of Azzun and the Israeli town of Ma’ale Shomron, near Qalqilya in Samaria.

No injuries were reported but the car’s windshield was damaged.

The attacks come amid heightened security tensions in Israel ahead of Yom Kippur, which begins on Sunday evening and is the holiest occasion on the Jewish calendar.

Thousands of police officers, security personnel and volunteers are to be deployed throughout the country to prevent terrorist attacks during the holiday, with a special emphasis on Jerusalem, mixed Jewish-Arab cities, synagogues and other places where Jews gather for prayer.

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Police are calling for licensed gun holders to bring their weapons to Yom Kippur prayers at the synagogue they attend.

On Saturday evening, a general closure was imposed on all of Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip crossings were closed, with the borders reopening at midnight after Yom Kippur ends on Monday evening. During this period, only transit crossings involving humanitarian and medical cases will be allowed and only with the approval of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit.

Already before Rosh Hashanah kicked off the High Holiday season, police had raised the alert level in Israel amid an increase in warnings of possible terrorist attacks and a spike in social media incitement by terrorist groups.

“The number of warnings leading up to Yom Kippur is increasing. That is why we call on worshippers to watch out for their safety, and for those who [legally] bear arms to come to prayers with their weapons,” said Maj. Gen. Sigal Bar-Zvi, head of the Israel Police’s operations division.