Four Israeli Settlers Killed in Attack in the Occupied West Bank

At least four Israeli settlers have been killed in a shooting near an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. Four people were confirmed dead and four others were wounded on Tuesday in the attack near the illegal Eli settlement, in the northern West Bank, the Magen David Adom emergency services said in a statement.

One of the gunmen was shot dead and Israeli forces are searching for a second, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported. Palestinian officials did not immediately confirm his death. Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, confirmed the attack. “Suspects opened fire into a gas station” near the entrance of the Eli settlement between Ramallah and Nablus, he said.

Israeli military said the gunmen arrived by car, “first targeted a restaurant, opened fire at that restaurant, and then targeted a gas station,” Khan said. One of the attackers “stole a running vehicle and fled the area”, he added. The Israel army has put up roadblocks and checkpoints to try and “apprehend that suspect”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for an “urgent security consultation,” Khan said. His far-right allies have been calling for a large-scale operation in the west bank.

The incident comes a day after six Palestinians were killed in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank during a large-scale Israeli military incursion. At least 91 people were wounded during the nine-hour raid. Israeli forces have closed off entrances to Nablus.

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, the group that governs the besieged Gaza Strip, described Tuesday’s shooting as a “response to the crimes of the [Israeli] occupation” in Jenin and elsewhere. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also commended the attack, saying it was a natural response to growing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. The group said it considered the incident as part of Palestinians’ “legitimate right to exercise self-defence”. It is “very difficult” to try and figure out what kind of motive there has been for the latest attack, Khan said. But the “timeline suggests that it may well have something to do with those Jenin attacks”. “In terms of responsibility, we are seeing gun attacks like this and they seem to be taking place by people who aren’t really affiliated with any particular group – they are looking for revenge when it comes to the things that they’ve seen go on in the occupied West Bank,” he added.

Israel has been conducting near-daily raids and killings of Palestinians in the West Bank since June 2021 in an attempt to crack down on a growing armed resistance. In 2022, Israeli forces killed more than 170 Palestinians, including at least 30 children, in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, in what was described as the deadliest year for Palestinians living in those areas since 2006. Since the start of 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 160 Palestinians, including 26 children. Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, house between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, despite Palestinians seeking the land as part of a future state.

Earlier on Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to immediately “cease all settlement activities” in occupied Palestinian territory, describing Israel’s plans to advance the building of settlements as driving “tensions and violence” and being a major obstacle to a lasting peace.

Source: Aljazeera