Terror attack: Pregnant Israeli woman killed on way to deliver baby, Hamas celebrates

The terrorist who fired the shots is still at large, and the IDF is searching for them.

By JNS and World Israel News Staff

The Israeli military is hunting for a terrorist who shot and killed a pregnant woman and injured her husband as they drove to the delivery room near the small community of Bruchin in Samaria.

The baby was delivered in hospital, Ynet reported, but its condition is not yet known.

The Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital stated on Wednesday night that its medical teams were fighting in the trauma room to save the life of the woman and the baby.

Early Thursday morning, the hospital announced that the woman had succumbed to her injuries. She was later identified as Tzeela Gez.

“I am deeply shocked by the horrific attack in Samaria, targeting a heavily pregnant woman and her husband as they were on their way to the delivery room,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated.

“This vile act precisely reflects the difference between us—those who cherish and bring life—and the despicable terrorists whose very purpose is to kill us and cut lives short,” the prime minister said. “I trust that our security forces, as in previous cases, will swiftly reach the murderers and hold them and anyone who aided them accountable.”

MDA paramedic Erez Fogel reported, “We left in an ambulance from a nearby community and immediately arrived at the scene. We saw a private vehicle on the side of the road with bullet holes.”

He continued, “Inside the vehicle was the driver, a woman in her 30s, unconscious with severe gunshot injuries. In the seat next to the driver was a male around 40 years old, fully conscious, also suffering from gunshot wounds. The man was trying to treat the injured woman next to him and tried to stop her bleeding.”

“We got both of them out of the car and provided medical treatment. We put the female into the mobile intensive care unit and evacuated her to the hospital while performing resuscitation efforts, as her condition was critical. The male was evacuated in another intensive care ambulance, fully conscious, in serious condition,” Fogel concluded.

The Yesha Council stated in Hebrew that it was “shocked and saddened by the terrible attack in Samaria and embrace the family at this difficult time.”

“The only way to prevent such serious attacks is to turn the city centers and villages, from which the murderers emerge, into ruins,” the council said. “We have been warning about this for a long time.”

“If the army continues to invest enormous efforts to capture a lone terrorist or a weapons cache and does not change the security perception on the ground, the State of Israel and its citizens will continue to be in danger,” the council added. “We are supporting the minister of defense in quickly changing the security perception.”

According to an English translation of an Arabic post, the Hamas terror group lauded the shooting, which it called “heroic.”