The Palestinian Hamas group on Sunday hailed a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that left three Israeli police officers dead, as the Israeli military continued its raids that began earlier this week in what it described as a counterterrorism operation.
Early on Sunday, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an Israeli police car in the city of Tarqumiyah near Hebron in the southern West Bank, killing three members of the police force according to the Israeli ambulance service.
The Israeli military said in a statement on X that its forces launched a manhunt after the assailants fled the scene.
According to the official Palestinian WAFA news agency, Israeli troops closed all entrances to the city of Hebron following the shooting attack, with at least one person reported arrested in the north of Hebron.
Meanwhile, Hamas described the attack as a “natural response” to the “heinous crimes” committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In a statement released Sunday, Hamas further called on all armed groups in the cities, towns and camps of the West Bank to launch more attacks against Israeli settlers and “occupiers who continue to commit massacres against our people in the steadfast Gaza Strip.”
Sunday’s attack comes amid Israel’s ongoing military operation in the West Bank. On Wednesday, the Israeli military launched coordinated raids in several areas in the northern West Bank, where armed groups close to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have a strong presence.
Tensions have been high in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip broke out last October. At least 622 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, including in Israeli raids and settler attacks. 135 of them were killed in Israeli strikes in the northern governorates, according to a Wednesday report by the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA).
Israel says its latest operation, the largest in years, is aimed at eliminating Iranian-backed militants who have carried out repeated attacks against Israeli civilians and settlers in the past months.
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops since Wednesday, according to the Ramallah-based health Ministry.
The fighting is particularly intense in Jenin city and its camp. Israeli troops have been imposing a tight siege on the city for the past five days, leaving residents trapped there without water and power, WAFA reported on Sunday.
Bashir Matahen, the director of Public Relations and Media at the Jenin municipality, told WAFA on Saturday that Israeli bulldozers destroyed nearly 70% of the city’s streets and infrastructure, including the water and electricity networks.
“Water has been cut off from 80% of the city and the entire camp, due to the destruction of the networks and the inability of technical crews to reach those networks to transfer them to other areas,” he said.
Matahen further warned that the besieged residents in the city and camp have run out of food and medicine, describing the situation there as “catastrophic.”
