Three Israelis killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Palestinian communities in the West Bank should look like ‘Jabalia’ in Gaza.

Three Israelis were killed and eight were injured in a shooting near the illegal settlement of Kedumim in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said.

Israeli media reported security officials as saying that at least two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on cars and a bus outside the settlement before fleeing the scene on Monday.

Two women in their 70s were killed in the shooting, as well as a 35-year-old police investigator from the illegal settlement of Ariel.

The incident comes as the war is raging in Gaza amid efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement.

In the wake of the shooting, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich appears to have called for all-out violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, similar to the devastation Israel has wreaked in Gaza.

“Al-Funduk, Nablus and Jenin must search like Jabalia“, he said, referring to the northern Gaza Strip, which Israel has razed to the ground for weeks and deprived of humanitarian aid.

Israel has faced accusations of ethnic cleansing in Jabalia. United Nations experts and several human rights groups have also said Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

“Terrorism in [the West Bank] and terrorism from Gaza and Iran is the same terrorism – and it must be defeated,” Smotrich added on Monday, according to the Times of Israel.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israel has intensified its crackdown on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, killing hundreds of people. The past year has also seen an increase settler attacks.

Palestinian gunmen – some linked to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied territory in recent months.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades, welcomed Monday’s shooting, saying efforts by Israel and its proxies to stop the “heroes of the West Bank” in supporting Gaza were “destined to fail.”

“The enemy must know that they will never enjoy security until our people have security,” Abu Obeida said in a statement.

Al Jazeera reporter Hamdah Salhut said a search was underway for suspects in Monday’s attack across the occupied West Bank.

Reporting from Amman, Jordan because Palestinian Authority suspended Al Jazeera’s operations in the occupied West Bank, Salhut said Israeli authorities had closed several roads and blocked off many areas in the search.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces would capture the attackers.

“We will get to the despicable killers and bring them to justice and everyone who helped them,” he wrote in a post on X. “No one will be spared.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in art advisory opinion in July that Israel’s presence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal and must end “as soon as possible.”

Alon Liel, the former director-general of Israel’s foreign ministry, said that amid escalating violence in the region, many Israelis accept that “there is no alternative” to fighting, especially among younger people.

“There is a very dangerous attitude developing here,” Liel told Al Jazeera on Monday.

“We need a fundamental change in Israel’s thinking and perhaps a fundamental change in the attitude of the international community [towards] conflict too.”