Three killed in West Bank vehicle attack, confirm Israeli authorities

Gunmen opened fire Monday on a bus and other vehicles near a village in the occupied West Bank, killing three people and wounding seven, the Israeli military and emergency services said.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7, 2023, after Hamas attacked Israel.

"Paramedics have confirmed the deaths of three victims, including two women and a man," emergency service provider Magen David Adom said.

The military told AFP that all three of the dead held Israeli citizenship.

The military reported that troops were "pursuing the terrorists" who attacked the village of Al-Funduq.

"We will reach the despicable murderers and hold them, as well as anyone who assisted them, accountable," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement from his office. "No one will be spared."

Magen David Adom said its 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 around 40, MDA reported.

"This was a severe attack that spread across multiple scenes where vehicles and a bus were hit by gunfire," paramedic Avichai Ben Zruya said in a statement.

"During our initial searches for casualties, we found two women around 60 years old in a vehicle, unconscious without pulse or breathing, with gunshot wounds," he said.

"After medical assessments, unfortunately, their injuries were severe and we had to pronounce them deceased."

- 'Act with force' -
The military said that troops had set up roadblocks and were encircling several nearby towns to apprehend the attackers.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had directed the military to "act with force" to find the attackers.

"We will not tolerate a Gaza-like reality in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and anyone who follows Hamas' path in Gaza and enables or supports the murder and harm of Jews will pay a heavy price," Katz said on X.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right member of the country's ruling coalition, also warned of harsh consequences in the wake of the attack.

"Funduq, Nablus, and Jenin should look like Jabalia", a now-devastated town in northern Gaza, he said in a statement, "so that Kfar Saba doesn't, God forbid, become Kfar Aza", referring respectively to a central Israeli city near the West Bank, and a kibbutz community near Gaza that was devastated during the October 7 attack.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is fighting Israeli forces in Gaza, praised the shooting attack in the West Bank.

"The shooting attack ... confirms that the resistance in the West Bank will continue despite the occupation's terrorism and security measures," Hamas said in a statement.

"The operation is a heroic response to the ongoing crimes and war of extermination committed by the occupation against our people."

Violence in the West Bank has surged 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 also killed at least 25 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.