Israeli troops kill Palestinian after suspected car ramming

Israeli soldiers conduct a search for suspects of a shooting attack yesterday in the West Bank City of Ramallah, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. Israeli officials say seven people have been wounded, one critically, in a shooting by a suspected Palestinian assailant outside a Jewish settlement of Ofra in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank after he attempted to ram his car into them, Israeli police said Tuesday.

Police said the driver struck a police vehicle and then attempted to hit forces securing an area near the West Bank city of Hebron. Police say officers opened fire at the car and that no Israeli forces were harmed.

Police said the driver was taken to hospital and died there. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death but did not immediately identify the man.

In a separate incident in the northern West Bank, police said another Palestinian drove his car toward Israeli forces, who opened fire and arrested the driver.

The incidents come as Israeli troops are conducting a manhunt for suspects who shot and wounded seven Israelis outside a Jewish settlement this week, including a pregnant 21-year-old whose baby was prematurely delivered by cesarean section after the attack. The baby remains in critical condition.

Following that attack, the military carried out a series of raids in the West Bank city of Ramallah, bursting into stores and the offices of the official Palestinian news agency.

Security forces are also still searching for a Palestinian who killed two Israelis in an attack at a West Bank industrial zone in October.

Speaking Tuesday at the opening of an interchange near an Israeli settlement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned this week's shooting and promised to "hunt down those responsible for the attack and make them pay."

Netanyahu said the attackers intended to push Israel out of the West Bank but that Israel would deepen its ties to the territory under his leadership.

"As long as I am prime minister, not even one Jew will be uprooted from his home. Not only will they not be uprooted from their homes, they will build more homes," he said at the event, about a half-hour's drive from the site of Sunday's shooting.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 war. Some 600,000 Jewish settlers currently live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, while Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinians seek all three territories for their future state and view the settlements as a major obstacle to peace. Most of the international community views the settlements as illegal.