Four shot dead near West Bank settlement

AL-LUBBAN ASH-SHARQIYA, Palestinian Territories: Four people were shot dead on 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.

The deaths are the latest in a surge of violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which before Tuesday´s shooting had killed at least 166 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian this year.

The tally compiled from official sources includes combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.

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.

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 told AFP at the scene.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday condemned the Israeli expansion plan to build over 4500 new settlements inside Occupied West Bank.

He said this makes the universally-accepted goal of achieving two-state solution even more distant and sows the seeds of renewed and perpetual instability and violence. The unprovoked, illegal and unethical Israeli actions continue to undermine peace with no regard for international law, and the UN resolutions. Pakistan is committed to supporting the Palestinians’ just struggle for an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, the prime minister tweeted.