An anti-Israeli attack by two gunmen resulted in the loss of four people’s lives in West Bankwhere the total number of deaths reached thirteen in just two days.

The attack took place near a gas station, a short distance from the Israeli settlement of Eli, between Ramallah and Nablus, in the northern part of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

The two perpetrators of the attack fell dead after killing two residents of Eli and a young man who lived in central Israel. The identity of the fourth victim has not yet been released.

The previous day, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization was killed by Israeli soldiers near Bethlehem, in the southern part of the West Bank, after a raid on a refugee camp in Jenin (north), during which six Palestinians died, including the fighters of the same organization.

In the community of Huara, near Nablus, about a hundred Jewish settlers attacked residents and set fire to fields on Tuesday night, according to the mayor and residents who spoke to AFP by phone. This appears to be a repeat of the February scenario, when a retaliatory attack was carried out following a Palestinian attack that left two Israelis dead in the area.

On the spot, an AFP journalist saw olive groves on fire. Dozens of people were injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Other settler attacks were reported last night in Al Luban al-Sharqiya, near Eli, and Beit Furiq, a community in the northern West Bank.

According to the Israeli army, one of the two perpetrators of the attack near the settlement of Eli was “neutralized” by an armed civilian on the spot.

According to the Israeli security forces, the second alleged attacker, who initially escaped, was “neutralized” near Toumba, where the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said one person died from “occupation bullets”. [σ.σ. του Ισραήλ].

“Heroic Operation”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attack as “shocking and disgusting”, declaring that “we will continue to fight against terrorism with all our might and we will win”.

“Nothing can justify such terrorist acts,” the German embassy said in a statement, condemning the attack “strongly.”

According to Magen David Adom (the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross), the two gunmen wounded four other people, one seriously.

The new tragic events were recorded the day after the clashes in an Israeli army raid which claimed the lives of six Palestinians in Jenin. The Israeli army met strong resistance.

The operation lasted more than ten hours and during it an attack helicopter fired missiles, something that had been done for years in Jenin. According to the Israeli army, it was cover fire in order for its forces to withdraw.

The attack near Eli was “a response to the crimes of the occupation, in the refugee camp in Jenin yesterday,” said Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Tarek Selmi, a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, spoke of a “heroic operation” that falls under the “legitimate right of defense”.

“Our Land”

Officials in Eli reported that two of the dead were Elisa Adman and Ofer Fagerman, residents of the settlement. The third victim was identified as Harel Masoud, 21, a resident of central Israel.

“This is our land, this is where we live,” said Eliana Passedin, a resident of Eli. “We have to find the strength to live our lives every day without fear,” she added.

Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups, which have multiplied since last year, usually lead to deadly clashes.

Since the start of this year, at least 166 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian woman and an Italian have been killed in violent incidents linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally based on official statements from Israeli and Palestinian authorities. already before the attack on Eli.

These statistics include on the Palestinian side combatants and civilians, including children, and on the Israeli side mainly civilians, including children, as well as three members of the Arab minority.

In addition to occupied and annexed East Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to approximately three million Palestinians and, among them, 490,000 Israeli settlers in settlements that the UN considers illegal under international law.