Palestinian security forces member fires on Israeli troops

Israeli troops shot and killed a member of the Palestinian security forces after he opened fire at a West Bank checkpoint, injuring three soldiers.

Amjad Sukari (34), from a village in the northern West Bank, was married and a father of four. He worked as a bodyguard for the Palestinian Authority’s attorney general in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“There are things on this earth that make life worth living,” he wrote on Facebook Sunday morning, two hours before the attack. “However, unfortunately, I don’t see life worth living under occupation – suffocating us, and killing our brothers and our sisters.”

He got out of his car and opened fire with his handgun when soldiers asked for his ID at the Focus checkpoint close to the settlement of Beit El, north of Jerusalem. Two of the soldiers were seriously wounded, with a third sustaining light injuries.

The shooting was the latest in a spate of Palestinian attacks that began at the beginning of October and have become increasingly focused on the West Bank. More than 150 Palestinians, along with 26 Israelis and an American tourist have been killed.

This was the third incident in the past couple of months involving members of president Mahmoud Abbas’s security forces.

According to Palestinian sources, the assailant was in serious debt to a number of people.

Nationalists

Hamas

issued a statement saying the attack “represents a clear sign there are nationalistic individuals within the security services who oppose the security coordination with Israel”.

Shortly after yesterday’s shooting, troops opened fire at a Palestinian car driving at high speed towards soldiers at another West Bank checkpoint. The Palestinian driver (19) was critically wounded and was taken to a Jerusalem hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership has welcomed a French initiative for an international conference to kick- start peace talks. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel would respond when it received a formal invitation, but he reiterated Jerusalem's position that direct talks without preconditions were the best way forward.