The Israeli army said it was searching for the suspects and setting up roadblocks near the town of Hawara, a volatile area in the northern West Bank, the scene of repeated attacks, including one by Jewish settlers who torched Palestinian property.
Separately, the official Palestinian press said a 19-year-old Palestinian died of his injuries after an Israeli army raid on the West Bank on Wednesday.
The latest incidents continue a spiral of violence with the deadliest clashes between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two decades. Some 180 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year and Palestinian attacks have killed 29 Israelis, according to an Associated Press tally.
Israeli paramedics said that upon arriving at the scene at a car wash in Hawara, they found two Israeli men, aged 60 and 29, shot and unconscious.
Videos circulating online showed Israeli soldiers walking through a large pool of blood to lift bodies onto stretchers and carry them to ambulances.
An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli soldiers set up checkpoints at the entrance roads to Hawara, where they stopped cars and searched passengers.
Several Israelis have been killed in Hawara in recent clashes. The death of two brothers, settlers from a neighboring settlement, provoked a violent assault on the town in February, with houses and cars burning.
Faced with the violence in the area, members of the far-right Israeli government have promised harsh reprisals. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich clamored to “erase” Hawara, but later backtracked, saying Israel should carry out surgical operations to search for Palestinian militants.
Ultranationalist members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have called for tougher action against rising Palestinian violence, and Saturday’s attack is likely to spark new calls to that effect.
The Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine militias congratulated the perpetrators of Saturday’s attack, which Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif Al-Qanou described as a “heroic operation”.
But none of the militias claimed responsibility for the attack.
Regarding the dead Palestinian, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said 19-year-old Mohammad Abu Asab was shot in the head on Wednesday when the Israeli army raided the Balata refugee camp near Nablus in northern Israel. West Bank. The report cited health authorities.
The Israeli army said in a statement on Wednesday that the aim of the raid was to destroy a clandestine arms factory and that a firefight ensued.
Wafa reported that Abu Asab, wounded in the head, was transported to Rafidia hospital in Nablus, where he died.
Palestinian health authorities did not immediately confirm his death.
It was not clear if Abu Asab was a member of a militia, and no group identified him as one of its members.
Israel has carried out raids almost every night for months after a series of Palestinian attacks. He says his goal is to dismantle militant networks and prevent future attacks. Palestinians see it as a natural result of 56 years of occupation, during which the Israeli government has built settlements and Jewish settlers have increased their acts of violence.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
