2 Palestinian gunmen planned a larger attack targeting Israeli civilians in West Bank, IDF believes

The two Palestinian gunmen who carried out this morning’s shooting on the outskirts of Hebron in the southern West Bank are believed by the military to have initially planned their attack on Israeli civilians.

The pair, both from Hebron, arrived by car at around 7:30 a.m. at a temporary checkpoint set up by the army at the exit to Hebron. The soldiers stationed there, from the Home Front Command’s 775th “Ari” Search and Rescue Battalion, were conducting routine checks on Palestinian cars leaving the city.

The IDF believes that the gunmen realized they would not be able to reach the Route 35 highway and target Israeli civilians there, and instead decided to open fire at the checkpoint.

The pair exited their car on a side street near the checkpoint armed with an assault rifle and a pistol, and using the buildings as cover, opened fire on the checkpoint, according to a preliminary probe.

The clash between the gunmen and IDF troops lasted over 20 minutes, during which five Israelis were wounded, including two critically and three in light-to-moderate condition.

The deputy commander of the Ari Battalion, a company commander, and an officer of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 101st Battalion who was stationed nearby and rushed to the scene, flanked the two gunmen and killed them.

The IDF says it later found a large quantity of ammunition in their vehicle, and believes that the checkpoint thwarted their plan to carry out a mass-casualty attack on Israeli civilians on Route 35.

The military’s probe has so far found that there was no specific warning of the attack, but the IDF is already on heightened alert ahead of the election and amid settler violence in the West Bank.

The IDF and Shin Bet are meanwhile investigating whether the two gunmen acted alone or were part of a larger terror network and received funding and direction from a terror group.