Two Gunmen Killed After Shooting Attack at Judea Junction in the West Bank

Two suspected attackers were killed by Israeli troops after a shooting attack at Judea Junction in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Israeli military said. The junction sits on Route 35 near Hebron, in the south of the West Bank. The military said its forces were still searching the area after the attack and had imposed a cordon, Reuters reported.

First responders reported four people wounded. Two were seriously injured and two were lightly hurt, and Magen David Adom, the national ambulance service, said one of the people it was treating was unconscious. Other early reports put the number of wounded at five, including two people in critical condition. The counts moved in the first hours after the attack, as they often do, and no single confirmed toll had been published by officials in the reports available on Friday morning.

Troops pursued the attackers

Word of a shooting at the junction, south of Hebron, reached Israeli forces early on Friday. The military said numerous soldiers were sent to the area, a pursuit was launched and roadblocks were set up. Troops killed the two suspected attackers as they tried to flee the scene, according to the military account of the incident. Reuters, reporting the military statement, said a cordon had been imposed and searches were continuing.

One live report from Israel said a security closure was placed on several nearby villages while the searches went on, and that extra forces were brought into the area. Paramedics treated the wounded at the scene before they were taken away by ambulance. The early reports did not name the two men who were killed, and the military statement carried by Reuters included no claim of responsibility by any group.

A main road in the hills south of Hebron

Judea Junction is a road junction on Route 35, the main road through the hills south of Hebron. Hebron is the largest Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, and Israeli forces keep a heavy presence on the main roads around it. Junctions and checkpoints on those roads have been the scene of attacks before, and troops at them are a regular target.

The shooting is the latest violent incident in the West Bank, where Israeli forces carry out frequent raids and where attacks on soldiers and settlers, and violence by settlers against Palestinians, have kept tensions high. Friday's attack drew a large and fast military response: a pursuit on the ground, roadblocks on the approaches to the junction, a cordon around the area and searches that were still under way when the first wire reports were filed.

What is known so far rests on the military statement, the ambulance service and live reporting from Israel in the first hours. The number of wounded may be revised as hospitals and officials publish confirmed figures, and the military has not yet given a fuller account of how the attack began.