Hamas celebrates shooting that killed Israeli mother en route to deliver baby

An Israeli woman on the way to a hospital to give birth was shot and killed in the West Bank on Wednesday, in an attack that Hamas applauded as a “heroic act.”

The baby boy survived after being delivered in an emergency cesarean section, Israeli health officials said, and remained in “serious but stable” condition. No Palestinian militant group took responsibility for the attack, but a Hamas spokesperson praised the shooting in a statement.

Israeli officials described the episode as an act of terrorism and said they were searching for the killer. The shooting came amid heightened violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where about 500,000 Israeli settlers live alongside about 3 million Palestinians.

Over the past year, Israeli forces have escalated raids against militant groups in some Palestinian cities. In the process, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and tens of thousands displaced. Since January, Israeli forces have seized parts of two major Palestinian cities, demolishing buildings and causing residents to flee.

The slain woman, Tzeela Gez, 30, a therapist and mother of three other children, set out from her home in the Israeli settlement of Bruchin on Wednesday night, ready to deliver. As she and her husband drove to the hospital, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on their car, according to the Israeli military.