IDF raids Palestinian news agency in hunt for gunmen

Israeli security forces are pursuing assailants from a shooting attack on Sunday night that left seven Israelis injured, including an in-utero baby whose health has deteriorated after removal from the womb following the attack.

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

Israeli military forces carried out a series of raids in Ramallah, including searching stores and offices of the official Palestinian news agency, in an intensive manhunt for gunmen who shot seven Israelis outside a Jewish settlement.

Workers at the Wafa news agency say the troops confiscated security camera footage from their offices as part of the raid.

The military announced early Monday that it had commenced “extensive searches” in villages near the Jewish community of Ofra in Samaria. In Sunday night’s attack, Palestinians fired shots from a white vehicle at a bus stop outside the village.

The army had no comment on the raid at the Wafa agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack “monstrous” and placed blame at the feet of the Palestinian Authority, which not only glorifies those who commit terror attacks on Israeli civilians, but also pays hundreds of millions of dollars annually in salaries and stipends to imprisoned terrorists and the families of those killed committing terror-related crimes.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian terror group Hamas praised the attack, announcing, “The action in [Samaria] proves that the resistance exists despite [Israel’s] attempts to destroy it.”

Hamas vowed that its terror-related “actions” would continue.