Two Israelis were wounded today by bullets, one of them seriously, in Howara, a Palestinian city in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, Magen David (Mada), Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, announced.

In a statement, the Israeli army pointed out that “a terrorist opened fire on an Israeli vehicle, hitting two civilians” in Howara.

On the spot “we found two injured, one of them in a serious condition, with injuries to the upper part of the torso, and a woman in a state of panic. We gave them first aid and they were taken away in an ambulance,” noted one of the rescuers, Tomer Fein, in a video posted by Mada.

According to the army, the attacker was arrested after “soldiers (…) and one of the two wounded civilians responded by firing live bullets at him and injuring him”.

The attack came as Egypt is hosting Israeli and Palestinian officials in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh as part of an effort, backed by the United States and Jordan, to contain a wave of violence in the West Bank in the run-up to the holy site. Muslim month of Ramadan.

Without claiming responsibility for the attack, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in their separate statements, but with similar phrasing, spoke of a “logical response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation”.

The two Palestinian movements have said they oppose today’s talks.

Since the beginning of the year, 86 Palestinians – including members of armed organizations and civilians, including minors – have been killed by the Israeli army or settlers. On the Israeli side, 12 civilians have been killed, including three minors, an Israeli policeman and a Ukrainian woman, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli and Palestinian sources.