Members of Israeli security forces inspect the site of a ramming and stabbing attack near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion. © Ohad Zwigenberg, AP

One dead, three wounded in West Bank stabbing and ramming attack

18 Nov 2025, 17:04 · France 24

One person was killed and three were wounded in a stabbing attack in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Israeli emergency services said.

Paramedics and an army medical force “established the death of a man aged 30 with a stab wound and referred three injured people” to two Jerusalem hospitals, Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, said in a statement.

The three injured people are a woman in her 40s in a serious condition, a man in his 30s and a boy of about 15, both in moderate condition, MDA added.

In a separate statement, the army reported a “ramming and stabbing attack in the area of Gush Etzion Junction” in the southern West Bank, which has seen repeated attacks against Israelis in recent years.

The army statement did not specify the number of casualties, but said that soldiers “eliminated two terrorists at the scene” and that “explosive materials were found in (their) vehicle”.

It also said that “soldiers are conducting searches and roadblocks, and encircling the area”.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement hailed the attackers, saying in a statement: “These heroic operations come in response to the relentless crimes of the settler gangs and the occupation army against our people.”

The Yesha Council, a body representing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, blamed the attack on the Israeli government's refusal to annex the Palestinian territory.

“When the State of Israel silently allows a ‘pathway to a Palestinian state’, terrorism raises its head again,” the council said in a statement.

The violence came a day after the UN Security Council gave its backing to US President Donald Trump’s blueprint to secure and govern Gaza.

Hamas rejected the plan as other countries signalled excitement and readiness to help implement it.

Also Tuesday, Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief, Walid al Omari, said Israeli forces shot a cameraman for Al-Jazeera in the legs while he was covering a protest in the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

UN adoption of Trump’s plan for postwar Gaza

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday applauded the UN approval of Trump’s plan for postwar Gaza.

“We believe that President Trump’s plan will lead to peace and prosperity because it insists upon full demilitarization, disarmament and the deradicalization of Gaza,” Netanyahu’s office wrote on X.

The resolution provides a wide mandate for an international force to provide security in war-devastated Gaza, approves a transitional authority called the Board of Peace to be overseen by Trump and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.

The plan calls for the stabilisation force to ensure “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups”.

A screenshot of a tweet from the Israeli Prime Minister Office © Israeli Prime Minister Office

It authorises the force “to use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate” in compliance with international law, which is UN language for the use of military force.

Hamas said Monday that the force’s mandate, including disarmament, “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation”.

It said the resolution did not “meet the level of our Palestinian people’s political and humanitarian demands and rights”.

Hamas demanded that any international force be under UN supervision, deploy only at Gaza’s borders to monitor the ceasefire and operate exclusively with Palestinian institutions.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) welcomed the resolution and said it was ready to immediately implement it, in cooperation with the US, the UN and other Arab and European states.

Palestinians largely view the PA, which governs semiautonomous zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as weak and corrupt. The authority's security coordination with Israel is extremely unpopular, and many Palestinians see it as a subcontractor of the occupation.

‘Right to self-determination’

The UN vote came about following nearly two weeks of negotiations, when Arab nations and the Palestinians pressed the United States to strengthen language about Palestinian self-determination.

The proposal still gives no timeline or guarantee for an independent state, only saying it’s possible after advances in the reconstruction of Gaza and reforms of the Palestinian Authority.

The US revised the resolution to say that after those steps, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.

“The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence,” it adds.

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A key to the resolution’s adoption was support from Arab and other Muslim nations that had been critical for the ceasefire and potentially could contribute to the international force.

That includes Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, and Turkey.

Turkish officials have said Turkey is ready to contribute to an international force in Gaza despite Israeli opposition to a Turkish presence.

Indonesia's defense minister has previously said the country has readied 20,000 troops for humanitarian operations, including medical services for civilians affected by the conflict and infrastructure reconstruction. But the plan is not final yet, Indonesia's foreign minister said Friday.

The vote shores up hopes that Gaza’s fragile ceasefire will be maintained following a war set off by Hamas’ surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people.

Israel’s offensive since then has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority are women and children.

‘Urgent action to open all crossings and flood Gaza with aid’

The European Union said on Tuesday it will host a conference on Thursday for a new Palestinian donors group to discuss financial aid for Gaza’s reconstruction, reforms of the Palestinian Authority and long-term peace in the Middle East.

The EU has pledged in the past to help train police officers in Gaza and flood the war-torn coastal enclave with humanitarian aid.

European Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier said delegations from 60 entities, including the EU’s 27 member states, unnamed financial institutions, international organisations and other countries would meet in Brussels. The meeting is to be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.

Another Commission spokesperson, Anouar El Anouni said that the UN Security Council resolution “provides the basis for moving into the next phase, including work related to the International Stabilization Force and the Board of Peace”.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Tuesday that the international community needed to “work together to take forward the 20-point plan and to turn it into a just and lasting peace”. Cooper called for “urgent action to open all the crossings, lift restrictions and flood Gaza with aid”.

Trump said the members of the Board of Peace will be named in the coming weeks, along with “many more exciting announcements”.

The plan calls for the stabilisation troops to secure Gaza border areas, along with a Palestinian police force that they have trained and vetted. The force will coordinate with other countries to secure the flow of humanitarian assistance, and should closely consult and cooperate with neighbouring Egypt and Israel.

As the international force establishes control, the resolution says Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza “based on standards, milestones, and time frames linked to demilitarization”.

These must be agreed to by the stabilisation force, Israeli forces, the US and the guarantors of the ceasefire, it says.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)