At approximately 9:30pm last night, an IDF tank corps company commander, Captain Shachar Shmul, was shot once in the chest by an Arab sniper outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Captain Shmul was in the midst of overseeing the controlled explosion of a suspected terrorist vehicle, making sure that the flames did not damage nearby Arab homes, when he was shot.
Moments earlier, a suspicious individual, spotted by Shmul’s unit, had fled from the vehicle into adjacent alleyways. Despite resuscitation efforts, Captain Shmul was pronounced dead by an emergency physician en route to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital. He was 24 years old, from Jerusalem. Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.
A Border Guard unit responding to the Bethlehem shooting came under attack as well, when Arab bomb throwers targeted the force. There were no injuries in that incident. Following the sniper attack, an open-ended curfew was imposed on the city. IDF tanks have taken up positions in Bethlehem for the first time this year.
Moments earlier, a suspicious individual, spotted by Shmul’s unit, had fled from the vehicle into adjacent alleyways. Despite resuscitation efforts, Captain Shmul was pronounced dead by an emergency physician en route to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital. He was 24 years old, from Jerusalem. Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.
A Border Guard unit responding to the Bethlehem shooting came under attack as well, when Arab bomb throwers targeted the force. There were no injuries in that incident. Following the sniper attack, an open-ended curfew was imposed on the city. IDF tanks have taken up positions in Bethlehem for the first time this year.