HUWARA: Israeli troops launched a manhunt on Saturday after a father and son were shot dead at a car wash in the occupied West Bank amid an upsurge of bloodshed in the territory.

“A suspected shooting attack was carried out at a number of Israeli civilians in the area of the town of Huwara,” an army statement said, adding that two civilians had been killed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the two men killed were an Israeli “father and son” and added that security forces were “operating forcefully to track down the murderer and bring him to justice just as we have done with all such murderers until now”.

In a statement, the Magen David Adom emergency service said it had been called to a car wash in the Palestinian town of Huwara shortly after 3pm. A correspondent saw streaks of blood on the floor of the car wash, as Israeli police and soldiers gathered at the scene.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the army had closed key entrances to the main northern West Bank city of Nablus, and that soldiers were forcing businesses to close as they searched for the suspected attackers.

The Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip said the attack was a response to Israeli actions.

Spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou said it was the “result of the resistance’s continuous promise to defend our people and respond to the crimes of the occupation.” The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since early last year, with a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, repeated Israeli army raids and violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinian communities.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2023