JERUSALEM (AP) – Two Palestinian attackers opened fire on Tuesday at a restaurant and gas station near an Israeli West Bank settlement. They killed four Israelis and injured several others before being shot dead, authorities said, as violence shook the occupied territory the day after a deadly Israeli military attack.
Israeli settlers attempted revenge attacks across the northern West Bank, raising fears of a repeat of last February’s killing spree that damaged dozens of Palestinian homes and vehicles and killed one Palestinian.
Truckloads of Israeli settlers drove into the northern Palestinian towns of Hawara, Beit Furik, Burin and surrounding villages, setting dozens of cars on fire, throwing stones and attempting to set houses on fire, Nablus official Ghassan Daghlas said. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.
Tuesday’s violence underscored the fragility of the situation in the West Bank, where Monday an Israeli military attack on the refugee camp north of Jenin sparked some of the fiercest Israeli-Palestinian fighting in years, killing six Palestinians and wounding dozens more. Palestinian militants targeted Israeli military vehicles with powerful roadside bombs, and Israeli forces used attack helicopters to evacuate stranded troops.
In the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus, two Palestinian youths were killed late Tuesday when homemade explosives they were handling accidentally detonated, the local branch of Islamic Jihad said in a statement of condolence. The militant group named the two Palestinians killed as 17-year-old Mohammed Hashah and 18-year-old Alaa Hafnawi. Palestinian media reported that a third were injured in the blast.
According to a tally by The Associated Press, a surge in violence in recent months has killed at least 130 Palestinians and 24 people on the Israeli side so far this year, leading many on both sides of the conflict to fear a possible major conflagration.
The Israeli military said it was sending reinforcements to the West Bank and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “settle the score with the killers.”
“I want to say to everyone who wants to harm us: All options are open,” he said in a video statement. “We will continue to fight terror with all our might and we.”
The Israeli military said all of the victims were Israeli citizens, and local media described three of the victims as residents of West Bank settlements, while the fourth was from central Israel. They were reportedly between the ages of 17 and 60.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the two Palestinian gunmen, both close to the Hamas militant group, drove to the shooting site from the Palestinian village of Urif in the northern West Bank. According to the Israeli military, the men rioted at a gas station next to the Israeli settlement of Eli, north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. They first stormed into a hummus restaurant and shot dead three people, the army said, before going to the gas station and killing another person who was pumping gas into his car.
A civilian repeatedly shot and killed one of the attackers. Hamas identified him as 26-year-old Mohannad Faleh. The second attacker fled the gas station in a stolen Toyota.
After an hours-long manhunt, Israeli security forces in the West Bank town of Tubas grabbed him and shot him dead as he tried to escape from his car. Palestinian health officials identified the man as 24-year-old Khaled Sabah.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad hailed the attack as a response to Monday’s deadly military attack.
“Revolutionaries in the West Bank are striking everywhere and especially where (Israel) does not expect it,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem, describing the shooting as “response to the crimes committed by the occupation at Jenin camp.”
Hours after the attack, Israeli settlers streamed through Palestinian towns, attempting to set fire to property and smash cars with rocks. Some settlers opened fire on Palestinians who had ventured out of their homes to confront them, Daghlas said. Dozens of Palestinians were attacked by stones and injured throughout Nablus governorate, he said, including a Palestinian journalist who was slapped in the face. Videos posted online showed huge fires sweeping across the landscape.
Although the extent of the damage remained unclear, photos showing charred cars and shattered windshields circulated throughout Nablus governorate overnight. In the northern village of Luban e-Sharkiyaa, footage showed a partially burned gas station and a destroyed supermarket.
The northern city of Hawara was the scene of a deadly rampage earlier this year in which Israeli settlers set fire to dozens of homes and cars and killed a Palestinian after a Palestinian militant attack killed two Israeli brothers.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with the country’s army chief and other top security officials to discuss a response to the shooting. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have increased pressure on the government to crack down on the wave of Palestinian violence.
“Now is the time for a military operation in Judea and Samaria,” said Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, using the biblical term for the West Bank. From the scene of the crime, he called on the government to “carry out targeted aerial bombardments,” “tear down buildings,” deport Palestinian attackers, and impose the death penalty on terrorists.
The head of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of the Israeli settlers, reiterated the call for a “broad (military) operation”.
“We cannot take this beating any longer and we hope that the wave of terrorism will just pass,” Shlomo Ne’eman said.
According to the Israel Rescue Service, one person remained in serious condition, two in moderate condition and one other in mild condition. Paramedics said they found seven people with gunshot wounds at the hummus restaurant and the outdoor gas station.
US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides strongly condemned “the senseless murder of four innocent Israelis” and said he was “deeply concerned by the civilian deaths” over the past two days.
Tuesday’s shooting followed fighting in the northern Jenin refugee camp that killed six Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and wounded over 90 others. On Tuesday, the death toll in the raid rose to six when 48-year-old Amjad Abu Jaas succumbed to injuries sustained in the shooting, Palestinian health officials said. A dozen Palestinians remain in critical condition. Eight Israeli soldiers were also injured.
After the deadly raid, Palestinians rushed to checkpoints to throw stones at Israeli military vehicles in protest. In the Palestinian city of Husan, west of Bethlehem, Israeli forces late Monday killed a Palestinian who allegedly firebombed troops along a West Bank highway. The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the man killed as 21-year-old Zakaria al-Zaoul.
Violence fueled by several factors has plagued Israel and the Palestinian Territories for months. Rising militancy among a new generation of Palestinians, the new far-right government’s tough stance on the Palestinians, and an escalating crackdown by the Israeli military on the West Bank have all helped fuel violence and undermined efforts to calm tensions.
In response to an outbreak of Palestinian violence early last year, Israel conducted raids in the West Bank almost nightly. Israel says most of the 128 Palestinians killed that year were militants, but stone-throwing youth protesting the raids and others not involved in confrontations were also killed.
In the 1967 Middle East War, Israel conquered the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek these areas for a future independent state.
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Associated Press writer Isaac Scharf in Jerusalem contributed to this report.