![]() ![]() Hours before, three armed Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank. On Thursday, a member of the armed wing of Hamas opened fire outside a Tel Aviv cafe, wounding three men in their 30s before being shot dead. Last month, UN chief Antonio Guterres said "each new settlement is another roadblock on the path to peace". ![]() Netanyahu's government has vowed to continue the expansion of West Bank settlements, which are illegal under international law. "We will continue to live and build here in Samaria and the entire region," Yossi Dagan said in a statement, using the Jewish biblical name for the northern West Bank. The Sunday shoot-out took place a short distance from an Israeli settlement, with the head of the regional Samaria settler council praising the army for "taking out the murderous terrorist squad operating in the area". "We are in the midst of a cycle of violence that must be stopped immediately," he said in a statement. On Wednesday, UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland urged Israel and the Palestinians to end violence without delay. Several Palestinian armed groups had called for revenge since an Israeli army raid on Tuesday, also in the northern West Bank, killed six Palestinians. Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based militant group, said the deaths were part of the "all-out war" it argued Israel had launched against the Palestinian people. Hamas, the Islamic rulers of the Gaza Strip, said the deaths would "fuel the great West Bank intifada," or uprising. "The principle is simple - whoever tries to hurt us, or hurts us, will pay the price," he said in televised remarks. Speaking ahead of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu commended the Israeli forces who "operate around the clock against those seeking to kill us". Violence intensified last year, but has worsened in the West Bank - which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967 - after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in December at the head of a hard-right coalition. The Lions' Den, an emerging Palestinian militant group that claims to rise above traditional factional loyalties and has been blamed for a number of recent attacks on Israeli targets, identified the three as members.Ī statement from the group said they had engaged in combat after identifying the Israeli ambush, vowing to revenge the "martyrs". It noted in a statement none of the Israeli forces were wounded in the clash. The Palestinian health ministry identified three men killed by Israeli gunfire near Nablus as Jihad al-Shami, 24, Uday al-Shami, 22, and Mohammad Dabeek, 18.Īccording to the army, the "three gunmen were neutralised during the exchange of fire and an additional armed gunman surrendered himself to the forces." The Israeli army said "gunmen opened fire" at an army position near the Jit junction, west of Nablus in the northern West Bank, with the soldiers responding with "live fire".Ī Nablus-based militant group said the Israeli troops had laid an ambush for them. Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinian gunmen in a pre-dawn firefight in the occupied West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian sources said Sunday, amid a surge in violence in the region. Violence has worsened in the occupied West Bank since Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office AFP ![]()
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