A shooting across several communities in central Israel killed a military reservist and wounded five other people on June 7, Israeli police and the military said. Police shot and killed the suspected attacker, a Palestinian citizen of Israel in his twenties from the Arab town of Taybeh.
The first reported gunfire was at a service station near Kokhav Yair. That location lies in Israel beside the line separating it from the occupied West Bank. Gunfire was subsequently reported near Salit, a West Bank settlement, and across two neighboring communities in Israel. Authorities initially considered whether several attackers were acting together.
Police later concluded that one gunman carried out the shootings with help from a possible driver. Officers arrested that suspected accomplice after he allegedly tried to stab them with a glass bottle. The evidence available did not identify either man by name or establish the gunman’s motive.
Israel’s military said the person killed was a 55-year-old reservist near Tzur Natan. Magen David Adom, the emergency service, counted five other wounded people, two in severe condition. Officials instructed local residents to remain indoors during the search, and children were kept inside schools for at least three hours.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the forces that stopped the attack. Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released a video near what appeared to be the gunman’s body and endorsed the lethal outcome. His remarks formed part of the political response; they did not add evidence about the attacker’s purpose.
The shootings occurred amid high tension in Israel and the West Bank following settler violence and the fatal shooting of a Palestinian baby during the preceding weekend. Violence in the West Bank had intensified after the Gaza war began. Israel said expanded raids targeted militants, while hundreds of Palestinians, including civilians, had been killed in those operations.
The wider conflict began with the Hamas-led assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed roughly 1,200 people and involved 251 hostages. Gaza’s Health Ministry reported more than 72,000 Palestinians killed in the subsequent Israeli offensive, without dividing its count between civilians and combatants. United Nations agencies and independent experts generally regard its detailed casualty records as reliable.
Separate violence in Gaza on June 7 killed at least nine Palestinians in two Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and Shifa Hospital. Those events were distinct from the central Israel shootings. For the shooting investigation, the established points remained one slain reservist, five wounded people, a dead suspect and an arrested alleged accomplice, with motive still undetermined.
Because the suspect was killed at the scene, investigators’ reconstruction depended on physical evidence, witness accounts and the alleged driver. No organization was reported to have claimed the shootings.
