AL SHARQIYA: Four people were shot dead Tuesday near a settlement in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials said, a day after an army raid in the territory left six Palestinians dead.

Tuesday’s attack took place at a petrol station near the Eli settlement, south of Nablus.

Four other people were wounded, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services.

The Israeli military said “a civilian in the area neutralised one of the terrorists” — without giving further details on their condition.

A military spokesman said Israeli security for­ces “located and neutralised” a second assailant who had fled the scene in a stolen car, near the northern city of Tubas.

The Palestinian health ministry announced the body of a man “shot by the Israeli occupation” arrived at a hospital in Tubas.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and the territory, excluding east Jerusalem, is now home to around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

An MDA spokesperson said its medics confirmed four fatalities but their nationalities were not immediately available.

Officials in the Eli settlement named one of those killed as resident Elisha Antman.

An AFP photographer saw Israeli police officers inspecting a partially-covered body, as soldiers and medics stood nearby.

The area around the gas station and an adjacent restaurant were sea­led off with police tape.

Prime Minister Benja­min Netanyahu said Israeli forces were “working on the ground in order to settle accounts with the murderers”.

“Those who have at­­ta­cked us are either in the grave or in prison, and so it will be here,” he said in a statement.

Eliana Passentin, an Israeli settler and resident of Eli, said “we should be able to live our lives every day without being afraid”.

“This is our land, this is where we live and we will be strong,” she said.

Deadly raid in Jenin

The shooting comes a day after Israeli forces launched a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, in which six Palestinians were killed.

A spokesman for the Palestinian group Hamas, Hazem Qassem, descri­bed Tuesday’s shooting as a “response to the crimes of the (Israeli) occupation” in Jenin and elsewhere.

Tariq Selmi, spokesm­­an for the Islamic Jihad, praised a “heroic comm­a­ndo operation” and des­cribed it as Palestinians exercising their “legitim­ate right to self-defence”.

The sixth Jenin fatality, Amjad Aref Jaas, died from his gunshot wounds on Tuesday, a Palestinian health ministry statement said.

More than 90 Pales­ti­n­ians were wounded in the hours-long raid, according to health officials, while the Israeli military said eight security personnel were wounded.

The Palestinian health ministry announced Israeli troops killed a 20-year-old near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Zakaria Mohammed al-Zaoul was shot in the head in the town of Husan, the ministry said.

The Israeli military said “a suspect hurled Molotov cocktails” at soldiers, who “responded with live fire”.

In a statement, Islamic Jihad claimed Zaoul as a member.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported the military used live fire, tear gas and stun grenades during the raid.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2023