Three Israelis were killed and eight wounded in a Palestinian attack on a bus and other vehicles in the northern occupied West Bank, the Israeli army and paramedics said.
Magen David Adom EMS identified the dead as two women in their 60s and a man in their 40s. The bus driver was seriously injured.
The Israeli military said “terrorists” opened fire on vehicles near the village of al-Funduq, which is on Highway 55, and then fled the scene.
Israeli media quoted a military official as saying the attackers were two Palestinians and that security forces were pursuing them, setting up roadblocks and surrounding several towns in the area.
Magen David Adom paramedic Avichai Ben Tzurya described it as “a very serious attack that spread across the road and involved multiple vehicles.”
“We conducted quick searches and identified two women and a man in private cars with no pulse, who had sustained serious gunshot wounds. We had no choice but to pronounce them dead at the scene,” he said in a statement.
“Inside the bus, we treated victims of gunshots and broken glass injuries, including the bus driver – who was conscious and suffered gunshot wounds – as well as additional victims in mild to moderate condition.”
The wounded were evacuated to two hospitals in central Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to bring to justice what he called the “heinous killers” along with all those who aided them.
“No one will get away,” he wrote on X.
Palestinian armed groups did not immediately make a claim, although Hamas praised the attack as a “heroic response against [Israel’s] continuation of crimes,” including the war in Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in the escalation of violence in the West Bank since the start of the war, which was sparked by Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the West Bank – a 17-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man.
The teenager was killed during an Israeli raid in the Askar refugee camp near the city of Nablus, which is 10 km (6 miles) east of al-Funduq, it said.
The Israeli army said its troops fired at people who threw explosives at them in the Nablus area, Reuters news agency reports. It added that “the target has been identified” and that the incident is ongoing.
The man was killed in the town of Meithalun, 21 km northeast of al-Funduq, where the Israeli military said Border Police officers killed an armed suspect during a wider operation in which 19 other people were arrested.
