Shaul Nir, who used to serve the so-called Jewish Underground, sustained serious injuries in the shooting near the northwestern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Wednesday evening. His wife, Rachel Nir, was lightly wounded.
The assailants fled the scene, and Israeli police forces have launched an operation to arrest them.
The terrorist group to which Shaul Nir belonged carried out a series of terror attacks, including car bomb attacks, against Palestinian officials, and its highest profile plot was to destroy the Dome of the Rock in al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Nir, together with three other members of the terrorist group, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1983 shooting attack on the Islamic College in al-Khalil (Hebron) and attempted assassinations. His sentences were controversially commuted three times by then president Chaim Herzog, and he was released after serving less than seven years.
Separately on Wednesday, a Palestinian was shot and killed after allegedly stabbing two Israelis in al-Khalil.
