Two Israelis, one pregnant, wounded in occupied West Bank: authorities

Two Israeli civilians including a pregnant woman were wounded on Wednesday when shots were fired at their vehicle in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli authorities.
An Israeli army statement said “a terrorist opened fire on an Israeli vehicle” near Bruchin, an Israeli settlement in the center of the Palestinian territory considered illegal under international law.
“Two Israeli civilians were wounded” in the attack and are being treated, the statement added.
The Beilinson hospital said a woman taken there was pregnant.
“Medical teams are currently fighting in the traumatology ward to save the life of the woman and that of her fetus,” a hospital spokesperson said.
Emergency services had earlier said the woman driver, who was aged about 30, was “in a critical state with gunshot wounds.”
A male passenger around the age of 40 was “in a grave state,” emergency services added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “deeply shocked by the horrific terrorist attack against a woman in advanced pregnancy and her husband.”
“This abhorrent incident precisely reflects the difference between us, who desire and bring life, and the reprehensible terrorists, whose goal is to kill us and destroy life,” he said in the statement released by his office.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the West Bank has seen an upsurge in violence.
Bruchin is an Israeli settlement built on West Bank land without the Israeli authorities’ approval which was retroactively legalized by the Israeli government.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law.