4 Israelis wounded in West Bank shooting

At least four Israelis were seriously injured on Monday night in drive-by shootings in the West Bank, in a second attack by Palestinians over the past day.

The incident took place off Highway 60, the main north-to-south road running through the West Bank, near the Jewish settlement of Shvut Rachel.

The circumstances of the incident were not immediately clear, but a spokesperson with the Israeli military told Xinhua that a shooter on a private vehicle opened fire at a group of civilians while they were sitting inside their car.

Israeli rescue service said that all of the victims are in their twenties. One of them was "unconscious and in critical condition," while two sustained serious injuries and the rest one sustained moderate-to-serious wounds.

"The assailants fled the scene," the military spokesperson said, adding that the army launched a manhunt to find the perpetrators.

On Monday morning, a Palestinian woman stabbed and seriously wounded a female Israeli soldier at the Rachel checkpoint near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Also on Monday, a 15-year-old Palestinian teen from the refugee camp of Shuafat in East Jerusalem was arrested at a nearby checkpoint after a routine check with metal detector identified a Carl Gustav automatic gun in his pants.

These incidents came three days after a Palestinian man was shot dead after he opened fire at Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint in the Jordan Valley.

The number of violent incidents between Israelis and Palestinians has been on the rise since the U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed last April.

Dozens of militant attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, mainly in Jerusalem, have claimed Israeli victims, along with Palestinian casualties from the frequent clashes between the Palestinians and the Israeli security forces. Endit