Playground at Beit El settlement comes under sniper fire

A children’s playground at the West Bank settlement of Beit El was hit by sniper fire Saturday night. No one was injured in the attack.

According to Channel 10 television, the gunfire is believed to have come from the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Jalazoun. The IDF launched a search in an effort to track down those responsible.

The incident came a day after a Palestinian teenager was shot dead as he tried to stab Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint close to the settlement. Palestinian sources later said that the youth had American citizenship, and named him as 17-year-old as Mahmoud Muhammad Shaalan, a resident of the village of Deir Daboun, north of Ramallah.

The youth was shot dead as he pulled a knife on troops at the checkpoint. There were no other casualties in the incident.

In the wake of the attempted attack, security forces launched a search of the area of the fence around Beit El in order to rule out an infiltration into the settlement.