Human Rights Voices

A Palestinian terrorist opened fire on Israeli vehicles on Wednesday night in the northern West Bank, striking a pregnant woman who was en route to a hospital to deliver her baby, along with her husband, the military and medics said.

The woman, identified as Tzeela Gez, 30, was rushed to Petah Tikva’s Rabin Medical Center in critical condition.

During efforts to save her life, doctors performed an emergency C-section to deliver her baby, the medical center said. The newborn was listed in serious condition and was transferred to Schneider Children’s Hospital within the compound, where doctors were working to save his life.

Shortly after dawn on Thursday, the hospital announced the woman’s death.

Gez, a mother of three, was in her ninth month of pregnancy and was heading from the family’s home in the Bruchin settlement to a hospital to give birth, local authorities said.

Her husband, Hananel, who was driving the car, was lightly hurt, the hospital said after his condition was initially listed as serious.

‘Even a small smile is spreading light’

Gez’s sister, Shaked Force, told the Ynet outlet that the pregnancy had been complicated.

“She really put in an effort. She was always smiling and gave all her strength, always there for others. I don’t have the words to describe such an amazing character,” she said.

Force said their parents “straight away knew of the disaster, knew that she was seriously injured, and when we got to the hospital, they couldn’t bear it.”

Tal Shahar Carmon, a close friend of Tzeela Gez, told the Kan public broadcaster about the “unbearably difficult” moment when Hananel explained to his three other children what had happened.

“He told them that with Mom they traveled to bring the new baby, and on the way a terrorist shot at Mom, and Dad tried to save her, and they did everything, and they managed to save the baby but not Mom,” she recalled.

Gez, who was active on social media, worked as a trauma, anxiety, and relationships therapist. In the past, she posted videos and messages encouraging her followers to maintain their spirits despite the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

“Another moment I am grateful that I am breathing, that I am present and that I am here,” she wrote on Facebook in December 2023, two months after the devastating Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel, which caused the war. “From here, all I want to do is be active and spread light; even a small smile is spreading light.”

Manhunt

The Israel Defense Forces said it launched a manhunt for the terrorist who fired at several vehicles on Route 446 outside the Bruchin settlement, where the wounded couple is from.

The military said it dispatched troops and an Israeli Air Force drone for the manhunt, and that soldiers encircled and blocked the entrances to the adjacent Palestinian town of Bruqin.

Palestinian media reported that some Palestinians were forced to sleep in their cars overnight because they were prevented from getting home.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir vowed to find the killers as he visited the scene.

“This is a difficult and painful attack in which an Israeli civilian was killed on her way to a delivery room. I share in the deep sorrow of the family. We are engaged in broad fighting against terror in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), and we will continue,” Zamir says in remarks published by the IDF.

“We will activate all our tools, and we will reach the murderers to bring them to justice,” he added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “deeply shocked by the horrific terrorist attack.”

“This abhorrent incident precisely reflects the difference between us, who desire and bring life, and the reprehensible terrorists, whose goal is to kill us and destroy life,” he said in the statement released by his office.

Defense Minister Israel Katz offered his condolences to the Gez family and prayers for the welfare of the newborn baby.

“We will continue to fight terror with great force” in all areas of the West Bank and “will not allow it to raise its head,” he said.

Katz said he had instructed the IDF to find those responsible for the attack and vowed “those who support and sponsor terror will pay a heavy price.”

Far-right ministers in the coalition called for a military offensive in the West Bank similar to the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has left most of the enclave in ruins.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X, “The burning pain and the cruelty of the sub-humans is incomprehensible.”

“Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis, and Gaza, we must also flatten the terror nests” in the West Bank, he said.

Allied far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted that the attack was “a painful reminder — the war is not only in Gaza.”

He then recalled a controversial remark he made in the past that “the right of the [Israeli] residents overrides that of the rights of Palestinian Authority residents to movement.”

He called on Netanyahu to instruct the IDF “to immediately and permanently” bring back all the checkpoints in the West Bank and to advance legislation to require a death sentence for terrorists.

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid offered his condolences to the Gez family and prayers for the injured baby.

“Terror will not break us,” he posted to X, adding that he trusts the security forces to find “all those who had a hand in the terror attack and bring them to justice.”

Head of the Shomron Regional Council Yossi Dagan said of Gez that she was “a devoted, loving, and smiling woman who only asked to live a quiet life–and she was murdered on her way to bring life [to the world].”

Dagan criticized security authorities, saying, “This is an area of repeated attacks, and the response by Israel can’t just be announcements to the media.”

The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip ignited the war there.

Since then, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks...

During the same period, 52 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.