Three Palestinian gunmen shoot at Israelis at a checkpoint between Ma’ale Adumim (capital) and Ma’ale Adumim (ma’ale Adumim); two attackers are killed, one captured; a pregnant woman is among the injured.

Police and medics reported that an Israeli man died and 11 other people were injured in a terror attack by three Palestinian gunmen on Thursday morning near a checkpoint located between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, a West Bank settlement town.

Police reported that the three opened fire on Israelis in traffic with automatic weapons while driving toward Jerusalem along Route 1, a few hundred metres before the az Za’ayyem Checkpoint near the West Bank city of the same name.

Medical officials confirmed that a man in his 20s died in the shooting. Matan Elmaliah (26), from Ma’aleh Adumim, was identified as the victim.

The Magen David Adom Ambulance Service said that it treated 12 people in total, including the youngster who was declared deceased at the scene.

MDA reported that a pregnant woman, aged 23, was in a serious condition. Four others, including a woman, aged 30, a man, aged 23, and a woman, aged 52, were listed as being in a moderate condition.

Five more people were treated in hospitals for minor injuries, acute anxiety and other conditions. All victims were transported to hospitals in Jerusalem.

Matan Elmaliah from Ma’ale Adumim, 26 years old, was killed by a terrorist shooting on Route 1 in 2024. (X, as used in accordance to Clause 27a Copyright Law).

According to Dr. Alon Schwarz, the head of Shaare Zedek’s trauma department, this pregnant woman underwent “significant surgery.”

Schwartz stated that the woman is in a stable condition and there is no immediate danger to her life. When asked about the fetus’s health, Schwartz said that it was “too soon” to tell if the development of the fetus or pregnancy would be affected in the long term. However, no problems were discovered during the initial examination.

Security forces and armed citizens on the scene shot two of the gunmen dead. Law enforcement officials reported that the third gunman fled before being “neutralized”. It was not known what condition he was in.

Police shared images that showed the three residents of Bethlehem were armed. They had assault rifles and submachine guns.

This photo is a handout from the police. It shows weapons used in a shooting near Ma’ale Adumim on February 22, 2024 by Palestinian terrorists. (Israel Police)

The Shin Bet security agency has identified the terrorists to be Muhammad Zawahra (26), his brother Kathem Zawahra (31) both of whom are residents of Ta’amra village, and Ahmed Al-Wahsh (31), a resident Za’atara.

Shin Bet reported that Kathem Zawahra was previously imprisoned after entering Israel illegally.

The terrorists fired into the cars as they ran, according to eyewitnesses.

A passenger of a waiting bus captured a video showing panicked people abandoning cars and running down the road in order to escape the gunfire.

Natav Tayib, a Magen David Adom medic in the emergency services, said that the scene covered a distance between 1.5 km.

Tayib reported that emergency teams discovered five cars with people injured inside. One of the cars contained a man in his 20s who was unconscious and had no vital signs. He had been shot to his upper body. Later, he was declared dead.

Amir Ararat was on his way to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center when he saved one of the injured people because he had a tourniquet with him in his car.

He saw the woman trying to avoid further injury after she had been shot.

Ararat ran after her to help. He said, “She had a gunshot in her forearm. It hit an artery.”

Ararat, who was a combat soldier in Israel, had a tourniquet that he used to apply to the woman “in the middle of the firing.”

“I heard the shooting but I concentrated on treating the injured,” he said, noting that the woman had moved about 150 meters from the scene of attack.

The scene of an attack by terrorists outside Ma’ale Adumim, in the West Bank. February 22, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

Yisrael Adler, an eyewitness, told Ynet that he had seen a terrorist approaching a car driven the pregnant woman. He then opened fire on her. He said that the woman who was wounded tried to duck underneath the dashboard.

Adler stated that “the terrorist had moved on.” Adler said that after the incident, the woman went to another car and asked for help.

Adler stated that ambulances took time to get to the woman due to gridlock created by the shooting. He said that it was a miracle that she survived.

Adler stated that “it could be possible that [the attack] wouldn’t have happened if there hadn’t been a traffic jam.”

Checkpoint death trap

Local politicians have echoed this criticism and said that the long queues at West Bank checkpoints are a deathtrap.

Benny Kashriel, the mayor of Ma’ale Adumim, told Kan that “we had alerted security forces dozens of time to the fear of terrorist attacks on that congested highway.”

Kashriel stated that the municipality requested additional lanes to be added to checkpoint in order to speed up the movement through the chokepoint as well as separate Israeli and Palestinian cars.

Oded Ravi, the mayor of Efrat in the West Bank, stated in a press release that “the method of attack this morning, and the exploitation the traffic jams at the checkpoint are the nightmare for everyone who faces the tunnel checkpoint.” This was in reference to a similar tunnel entrance checkpoint connecting the Gush Etzion block with Jerusalem, which is also often congested, and was the site of a deadly shooting attack in November.

Police officers at the scene of an attack by terrorists on Route 1 in the West Bank near Ma’ale Adumim. February 22, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

He asked security chiefs to “change their approach immediately” and “create a safe zone for residents who want to reach Jerusalem”, and to “pay a little closer attention to our remarks and clarifications in public leadership.”

The attack occurred during Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

Arabic-language media reported that Hamas released a statement in which it praised the attack, and described the shooting as “a natural reaction” to the conflict in Gaza.

The terror group stated that “the heroic operation is a response to the Occupation’s massacres, crimes and atrocities in the Gaza Stripe and West Bank.”

People on the scene of a terrorist shooting attack in the West Bank, outside Ma’aleh Adumim. February 22, 2024. ( Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

Since October 7, when 3,000 terrorists smashed through the Gaza border and into Israel, in an attack led by Hamas, killing more than 1,200 civilians, tensions have been high in Israel and West Bank.