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28 March 2024

Four Israelis killed in West Bank shooting

Published
By AFP

Four Israelis were gunned down in the West Bank on Tuesday in an attack claimed by Hamas as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington for renewed peace talks with the Palestinians, vowed revenge.

The Hamas organisation praised the attack, whose victims included a pregnant woman, and hundreds of its supporters took to the streets of the Gaza Strip to celebrate.
 
Netanyahu said the "blood of Israeli civilians" would not go unpunished as he vowed to hunt the killers.
 
The four Israelis were shot dead near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba after nightfall in a clear and bloody message from Hamas, which is vehemently opposed to the talks which Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas are to relaunch in Washington on Wednesday.
 
"The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade claims full responsibility," Hamas' military wing said in a terse statement.
 
"Hamas blesses the Hebron operation and considers it as a normal reaction to the occupation crime,"  
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a separate statement.
 
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak immediately informed Netanyahu, who was still in the air at the time.
 
"The army and the security forces will do everything they can to lay their hands on the murderers," Barak said in a statement.
 
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also condemned the incident, which he said came as the Palestinian leadership was seeking to enlist international support for its arguments at the Washington talks.
 
The attack, he said in a statement, "is contrary to the Palestinian national interest".
 
Meanwhile Netanyahu, in Washington where he was due to resume direct peace negotiations with Palestinians on Thursday for the first time since December 2008, said: "We witnessed today a savage murder of four innocent Israelis".
 
Aides said Netanyahu had ordered his security forces to hunt for the killers "without diplomatic restraint".
 
In Jerusalem, United Nations peace envoy Robert Serry said he was shocked at the incident but said it should not be allowed to divert the Israeli and Palestinian leaders from seeking an end to the conflict.
 
"We condemn this murderous act and call for those responsible to be brought to justice," he said in a statement, adding that Netanyahu and Abbas should not "allow the enemies of peace to affect the negotiations about to be launched".
 
Abbas condemned the attack, saying it was intended to "disrupt the political process".
 
"The Palestinian president and the Palestinian leadership have condemned the attack that occurred near Hebron, in keeping with our principle of rejecting all attacks against civilians, whether they are Israelis or Palestinians," said a statement issued by Abbas's press office from Washington.
 
The White House condemned the killing of the four Israelis in the "strongest possible terms", warning "enemies of peace" would aim to thwart the peace talks.
 
Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said a car in which the victims were travelling came under fire on a road between the settlement and the Palestinian village of Bani Naim, near the city of Hebron.
 
It is understood that the dead were settlers from the area, adding that the road on which they were attacked was used by both Palestinians and Israelis.
 
The bloodstained vehicle at the side of the road was riddled with what looked like dozens of bullet holes.
 
Rescue services said the victims were a man and woman around 40 years old and another man and woman in their 20s. The military said one of the women was pregnant.
 
Troops are combing the area in a hunt for clues and suspects.
 
It was the first fatal attack on Israelis in the West Bank since June 14, when a policeman was killed and two others were wounded, also in the Hebron area.
 
Netanyahu says the latest attempt to reach a binding peace treaty with the Palestinians must be based on "firm security arrangements" to ensure that future Palestinian rule in their (Occupied Palestine) West Bank homeland does not lead to the territory becoming a staging point for attacks on Israelis.
 
Abbas says that talks will implode unless there is a complete halt to Israeli settlement building on Palestinian land.