Jerusalem — Gunmen opened fire on a bus and other vehicles near a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday, killing three people and wounding seven, the Israel Defense Forces and emergency services said. Violence in the West Bank has soared since then war in Gaza exploded on October 7, 2023. after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
“Three victims, including two women and a man, have been confirmed dead by paramedics,” said Magen emergency provider David Adom.
The IDF said troops were “in pursuit of the terrorists” who carried out the attack near the village of Al-Funduk.
“We will catch up with the heinous killers and bring them and everyone who helped them to justice,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement from his office. “No one will be spared.”
Magen David Adom said paramedics are treating seven people on the bus, including the driver, who is in critical condition. The two women killed in the shooting were in their 60s, and the man was in his 40s, MDA said.
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“This was a serious attack that spread to several scenes where vehicles and a bus were hit by gunfire,” paramedic Avichai Ben Zruya said in a statement. “During our initial search for victims, we found two women in their 60s unconscious, pulseless, not breathing, with gunshot wounds in the vehicle.”
The military said troops had set up roadblocks and cordoned off several nearby towns to detain the attackers.
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said he had ordered the military to “act with force” to find the attackers.
“We will not tolerate a Gaza-like reality in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), and anyone who follows the path of Hamas in Gaza and facilitates or conceals the killing and harm of Jews will pay a heavy price,” Ben Gvir said. on X.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another far-right member of the country's ruling coalition, also warned of dire consequences from the attack.
“Hazelnut, Nablus and Jenin should look like Jabalia,” he said in a statement, citing a now-destroyed town in northern Gaza“lest (the central Israeli city) Kfar Saba, God forbid, become the next Gaza.”
Violence in the West Bank has flared since the start of the Gaza war. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 818 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began, according to the health ministry in Ramallah. According to Israeli official figures, at least 25 people were killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank during the same period.
The IDF continued its intensive operations in Gaza over the festive period, prompting warnings from the United Nations and humanitarian groups, notably over raids in hospitals and camps for displaced civilians.
Negotiations by the US and its partners in the region for a ceasefire in the war have repeatedly sparked optimism that a deal is imminent, but speaking on Monday during a visit to South Korea, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken acknowledged that this might not be possible conclude a truce agreement before the end of President Biden's term on January 20.
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be more sympathetic to the Israeli government in a war he says will soon end, though he has offered no guidance on how he will achieve that.