Four Israeli settlers were killed and four others were wounded in a shooting by two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank near the Israeli settlement of Eli, in what is the second deadliest Palestinian attack of 2023. According to the army of Israel, at least two armed men, allegedly linked to the Islamist group Hamas, arrived by car at the place – located between the cities of Ramallah and Nablus -, and once there they opened fire on a hummus restaurant and a adjacent gas station.
At the scene, doctors from the Israeli emergency service declared four people dead, and one seriously injured.
One of the attackers was shot dead by an armed civilian and the second escaped in a stolen vehicle, prompting Israeli forces to launch a large-scale manhunt. Hours later, the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet reported that he had been shot dead by Israeli agents after he tried to escape when he was about to be arrested.
Palestinian media identified the first gunman as a 26-year-old man, resident in the village of Urif, near Huwara, a Palestinian locality that has suffered an increase in attacks by Israeli settlers this year. The most serious was the irruption of a horde of people who, in February, after the death of two Israelis in a Palestinian attack, killed a local resident, caused multiple injuries and destroyed homes and vehicles.
Shortly after the attack near the settlement of Eli (considered illegal under international law), Hamas and Islamic Jihad celebrated the shooting, describing it as a “natural response against the crimes of the Israeli occupation.” , but no Palestinian militia claimed responsibility.
Hamas linked this armed aggression to retaliation for Monday’s Israeli raid on Jenin, which left six Palestinians dead, nearly a hundred wounded, and which was marked by the participation of an Israeli Air Force helicopter, a an image that had not been seen in the occupied West Bank for almost two decades. Israel claimed that its intervention was necessary to evacuate its eight soldiers wounded by an explosive device detonated by local militias.
In this scenario, voices are multiplying in the most radical wing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government demanding a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank. The Minister of Internal Security, the extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, demands “selective killings and destroying buildings”. In a video following the attack, the Israeli prime minister assured that “all options are on the table” and warned that “anyone who can harm us is in prison or in the grave.”
This is the most violent year in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada, with at least 132 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in 2023, including 22 minors. In this period, 25 people have died on the Israeli side.
