Tzeela Gez was on her way to the hospital to bring new life into this world when hers was suddenly cut short.
As her husband drove their car through the winding roads of the occupied West Bank late Wednesday, a Palestinian attacker shot at them. Within hours, Gez, nine months pregnant, was dead.
Doctors barely saved the life of the baby, who is in serious but stable condition.
Israel says it is trying to prevent such attacks by waging a monthslong crackdown on West Bank militants that intensified earlier this year. But the escalating offensive has ultimately not snuffed out attacks.
Israel has also pledged to find the attacker, who fled the scene, and the military chief of staff, who visited the area Thursday, told troops that the broader operation would continue alongside the manhunt.
“We will use all the tools at our disposal and reach the murderers in order to hold them accountable,” Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said, according to a statement from the military, which said it had sealed Palestinian villages in the area of the attack and set up checkpoints.
Gez, 37, and her husband Hananel, were residents of Bruchin, a settlement of some 2,900 in the northern West Bank.
She worked as a therapist and on her Facebook page, shared developments in her professional life as well as her thoughts on the war in Gaza, the fallen Israeli soldiers and the hostages still held by Hamas. Meital Ben Yosef, head of the settlement’s local council, told Israeli Army radio that Gez was “all mother. A mother in her essence.”
“A couple of parents were driving to the happiest moment that a parent can experience and the wife is killed on the way. It’s a horrific incident,” she said.
Do you support Israel in its fight against Hamas?
Photos of the car released by the military showed a bullet hole on the passenger side of the windshield and a streak of blood on a back door.
Soldiers searched the rugged brush on the sides of the road following the attack, according to video released by the Israeli military.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, praised the attack as “heroic” in a video statement Wednesday but stopped short of saying the militant group was behind it.
On Thursday, military checkpoints slowed down traffic on roads in the vicinity of the attack, and many Palestinian motorists were at a standstill as they tried to make their journeys, according to video shared on social media.
The attack sparked outrage and calls for revenge.
The violence in the West Bank escalated when the war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said its forces killed five militants in a raid that appeared unrelated to Gez’s killing.
Hamas mourned the men as “resistance heroes” but stopped short of claiming them as its fighters.
Israel says much of the Palestinian militancy in the West Bank is fueled by Iran and views the fighting there as part of its ongoing multifront wars to secure its borders and prevent a second Oct. 7-style attack.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
