LONDON (AP) A Palestinian Authority official was killed Friday in a car bombing in the West Bank, raising the death toll in the Gaza Strip to four and an escalation in violence in the Middle East’s most populous Palestinian territory.
The explosion in the town of Salfit in the occupied West Bank killed a woman and wounded a child, a statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that a doctor was among those wounded.
It did not provide details.
Palestinian officials and the UN’s human rights office had earlier blamed Israeli attacks for an uptick in violence, saying more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed in 2015.
It said the majority were civilians.
A Palestinian security official in Gaza City said the bombing occurred near the town hall of Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian security council official said.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
A Gaza Health Ministry spokesman said a doctor and another doctor were among the injured.
The United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency said on Twitter that the number of people displaced by the ongoing violence is more than 6,000 people, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been killed.
