Israeli authorities said that four persons were shot and killed in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, only a day after six Palestinians were murdered during an army assault there.
Before the shooting on Tuesday, at least 166 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian, and an Italian had been slain this year. The fatalities are the most recent in a wave of violence associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Around 100 Jewish settlers attacked locals and set fire to farms in Huwara, close to Nablus, according to the mayor of the town and a local, who spoke to AFP by phone.
It appeared to be a repetition of the chain of incidents that occurred after a Palestinian attack in the region in February that resulted in the deaths of two Israelis living nearby.
Olive groves were on fire, according to an AFP correspondent there.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, several dozen persons were hurt.
In the late afternoon and early evening, reports of additional settler attacks were made in the northern West Bank towns of Beit Furik and Al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, both close to Eli.
The list of those killed in Tuesday’s strike, which was collated from official sources, includes both combatants and civilians, as well as three Arab minority members from Israel.
It happened at a gas station close to the Eli community, which is south of Nablus.
According to Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue services, four further people were hurt.
Without providing any information on the terrorists’ conditions, the Israeli military said that “a civilian in the area neutralized one of the terrorists.”
Israeli security officers “located and neutralised” a second attacker who had fled the area in a stolen car, according to a military spokeswoman, close to the northern city of Tubas.
The body of a man “shot by the Israeli occupation” had arrived at a hospital in Tubas, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Since the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has occupied the West Bank and, with the exception of east Jerusalem, the region is now home to some 490,000 Israelis who reside in settlements that are deemed illegal by international law.
