Three Israelis Killed In Northern West Bank Shooting

Three Israelis were killed and several injured in a shooting attack on a car and bus near the settlement of Kedumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israel’s national ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) said.

The attack comes amid a diplomatic push for a deal to end the 15-month-old war in Gaza and return Israeli hostages home and may pose another obstacle to sealing such a deal before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in the settlement where the attack took place, called for an urgent cabinet meeting “to discuss a shift in strategy and to genuinely eradicate terrorism”.

Smotrich, on the far right of Israeli politics, has for years called for Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, which is land that Palestinians want for a future state.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring the perpetrators and anyone who aided them to justice.

“No one will be spared,” he posted on X.

There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.

Hamas, the militant group that runs the Gaza Strip and has a presence in the West Bank, praised the attack as a “heroic response against the occupation’s continued crimes including the war of genocide in Gaza”. But it did not claim responsibility.

The West Bank has been transformed by the rapid growth of Jewish settlements since Netanyahu returned at the head of a far-right nationalist coalition two years ago. During that time, a surge in settler violence has led to US sanctions.

Since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, the violence in the West Bank has spiralled, with hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis killed.

Act forcefully

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to “act forcefully” in response to the attack.

Israeli Army Radio said the military had imposed a cordon around all villages in the area to search for the suspects, who it believes fled to a nearby Palestinian village.

MDA said two women in their 60s and a man around 40 years old were pronounced dead at the scene, while eight passengers were wounded including a 63-year-old male bus driver who is in serious condition.

Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a post on Telegram that “Israel will never enjoy security” unless the Palestinian people also have security.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in a 1967 war. Most countries consider the settlements illegal, although Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.

Palestinian security forces moved into Jenin, in the northern West Bank, last month in a move they say is aimed at suppressing armed groups of ‘outlaws’ who have built up a power base in the city and its adjacent refugee camp.

On Sunday, Israeli forces killed a 37-year-old man in a town south of Jenin after opening fire on his home, while a 17-year-old was killed in an Israeli raid in Askar camp in Nablus, according to Palestinian officials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere