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 skyrocketed since war in gaza It broke out on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.
“Paramedics have confirmed the death of three victims, including two women and a man,” said emergency services provider Magen David Adom.
The IDF said troops were “pursuing the terrorists” who carried out the attack near the village of Al-Funduq.
“We will reach out to the despicable killers and hold them accountable, as well as anyone who helped them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement from his office. “No one will be saved.”
Magen David Adom said his paramedics were providing treatment to seven people who were on the bus, including the driver, who was in serious condition. The two women killed in the shooting were in their 60s, while the man was in his 40s, the MDA reported.
Reuters
“This was a severe attack that spread to multiple scenes where vehicles and a bus were hit by gunfire,” paramedic Avichai Ben Zruya said in a statement. “During our initial searches for victims, we found two women in their 60s in a vehicle, unconscious, without pulse or breathing, with gunshot wounds.”
The army said troops had set up roadblocks and surrounded several nearby towns to stop the attackers.
Israel’s National Security Minister, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, said he had ordered the army 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 allows or protects the murder and harm of Jews will pay a high price,” Ben Gvir said in INCÓGNITA.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another far-right member of the country’s ruling coalition, also warned of the harsh consequences of the attack.
“Funduq, Nablus and Jenin should look like Jabalia,” he said in a statement, referring to a now devastated city in northern Gaza“so that (Israel’s central city) Kfar Saba does not become, God forbid, the next Gaza.”
Violence in the West Bank has increased since the start of the war in Gaza. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 818 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began, according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry. Palestinian attacks on Israelis have killed at least 25 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to official Israeli figures.
The IDF has continued its intense operations in Gaza over the holiday period, drawing warnings from the United Nations and humanitarian groups specifically. for raids targeting hospitals and camps for displaced civilians.
Talks led by the United States and its partners in the region to negotiate a ceasefire in the war have repeatedly stoked optimism that a deal is imminent, but speaking Monday during a visit to South Korea, Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that it may not be possible to finalize a truce agreement before President Biden’s term ends on January 20.
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to take a more sympathetic approach to the Israeli government in the war, which he said will end quickly, although he offered no indication of how he will accomplish the feat.
