JERUSALEM: Three Israelis were killed and several injured on Monday in a shooting attack on a car and bus near the settlement of Kedumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israel’s national ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) said.

The attack, on a major road used by both Israelis and Palestinians, comes amid a diplomatic push for a deal to end the 15-month-old conflict in Gaza and return Israeli prisoners home and may pose another obstacle to sealing such a deal before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan 20.

Footage posted on Israeli news sites showed at least two men emerge from a car and apparently open fire on nearby vehicles near the Palestinian village of al-Funduq, just down the road from Kedumim.

Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in the settlement where the attack took place, called for an urgent cabinet meeting “to discuss a shift in strategy and to genuinely eradicate terrorism”.

Tel Aviv imposes a cordon around all villages in the area to search for suspects

The northern West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin “should look like Jabalia”, he wrote, referring to a town in the north of the Gaza Strip that has been completely destroyed by repeated Israeli bombardment.

Smotrich, on the far right of Israeli politics, has for years called for Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, which is land that Palestinians want for a future state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met senior military and security officials to discuss the situation and approved measures to capture attackers as well as “a series of additional offensive and defensive actions” in the West Bank. “No one will be spared,” he posted on X.

There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.

Hamas, which has run the Gaza Strip and has a presence in the West Bank, praised the attack as a “heroic response against the occupation’s continued crimes (including) the war of genocide in Gaza”. But it did not claim responsibility. The West Bank has been transformed by the rapid growth of Jewish settlements since Netanyahu returned at the head of a far-right nationalist coalition two years ago. During that time, a surge in settler violence has led to US sanctions.

Since the Oct 7, 2023, raid by Hamas on southern Israel that triggered the conflict in Gaza, the violence in the West Bank has spiralled, with hundreds of Palestinians and several Israelis killed.

‘Act forcefully’

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to “act forcefully” in response to Monday’s attack. Israeli Army Radio said the military had imposed a cordon around all villages in the area to search for the suspects, who it believes fled to a nearby Palestinian village.

MDA said two women in their 60s and a man around 40 years old were pronounced dead at the scene, while eight passengers were wounded including a 63-year-old male bus driver who is in serious condition.

Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a post on Telegram that “Israel will never enjoy security” unless the Palestinian people also have security.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in a 1967 war. Most countries consider the settlements illegal, although Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.

Palestinian security forces moved into Jenin, in the northern West Bank, last month in a move they say is aimed at suppressing armed groups of “outlaws” who have built up a power base in the city and its adjacent refugee camp. On Sunday, Israeli forces killed a 37-year-old man in a town south of Jenin after opening fire on his home, while a 17-year-old was killed in an Israeli raid in Askar camp in Nablus, according to Palestinian officials.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2025