By Ali Sawafta
Umm Safa, West Bank A Palestinian militant opened fire at an Israeli checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Saturday before he was shot dead by forces at the scene, Israel's police said, and settlers set fire to homes in a nearby Palestinian village, residents said.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed group associated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, claimed the gunman as a member. Official Palestinian news agency WAFA identified him as an 18-year-old from Kafr Aqab.
Police said a security guard was wounded in the attack and distributed a photo of an M-16 rifle they said was used by the gunman.
A few hours later, Israeli settlers torched at least two houses in the Palestinian village Umm Safa near Ramallah, residents said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Israeli military said one Israeli suspect had been arrested and that its forces used anti-riot measures to break up Palestinian stone throwing that erupted at the village.
Violence surged this week in the West Bank, where for over a year the military has conducted regular sweeps leading to repeated clashes with Palestinian fighters amid a spate of Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.
The past few days saw deadly clashes in the city of Jenin, a fatal Palestinian shooting attack near a settlement, attacks on Palestinian villages by settlers and a rare Israeli air strike in the West Bank against militants.
On Friday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan encouraged more steps to restore calm in a call with his Israeli counterpart, the White House said, and expressed concerns about Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages.
U.S.-brokered peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, collapsed in 2014 and show no sign of revival.
(Additional reporting and writing by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Toby Chopra and Ros Russell)
