Three Israeli police killed in Sept. 1 West Bank shooting attack

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(This Sept. 1 story has been corrected to fix the number of Israelis killed, in paragraphs 15 and 16)

By James Mackenzie and Ali Sawafta

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Three Israeli police officers were killed on Sunday when their vehicle came under fire near the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials said, adding to days of violence in the Palestinian territory.

Following the attack in the area of the Idna Tarqumiyah Junction, security forces surrounded a house in Hebron and killed a Palestinian suspected of carrying out the shooting, the military said.

Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids across the West Bank since last Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the area in months, which Israel says is aimed at rooting out Iranian-backed Islamist militants.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported on Sunday that two Palestinian brothers had been shot by Israeli forces in the town of Kafr Dan, outside Jenin in the northern West Bank, where Israeli forces have been operating since Wednesday.

The deployment of army and police units across the West Bank has underscored the heavy pressure facing Israeli security forces now fighting on multiple fronts, with little sign of a breakthrough in talks to secure a halt to the fighting in Gaza.

“We are fighting on all fronts against a cruel enemy who wants to murder us all,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, also referring to six Israeli hostages killed in captivity in Gaza and whose bodies were recovered from a tunnel on Sunday.

As he spoke, Israeli troops were still operating in Jenin, where the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters were engaged.

HEAVY DAMAGE

The operation, now in its fifth day, has caused heavy damage to infrastructure in the city and the adjacent refugee camp, a densely populated township, with multiple damaged houses and buildings and a mass of streets torn up by armoured bulldozers hunting for roadside bombs.

At least 24 Palestinians, most claimed by Hamas or Islamic Jihad as their members, have been killed since the start of the Israeli operation.

Israeli forces have made 110 arrests, according to the Palestinian prisoners association.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardline member of Israel’s security cabinet, called for more action against Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

“We need to do now what we didn’t do that awful night and launch a pre-emptive strike and strike terrorism hard,” he said, referring to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“We are committed to eliminating terrorism on all fronts,” he said, speaking from the scene of Sunday’s attack.

At least 34 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed in Palestinian attacks and clashes with Palestinian fighters outside Gaza and northern Israel in the period from Oct. 7 to the end of August, according to figures from Shin Bet, the Israeli domestic security agency.

The figure does not include at least 47 Israeli soldiers and civilians killed in attacks by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah based in southern Lebanon, according to figures from Alma Research and Education Center, a think tank in northern Israel.

At the same time, Israeli forces have killed almost 680 Palestinians, including armed fighters, stone-throwing youths and uninvolved civilians.

Hamas, which is fighting a war with Israel in Gaza, praised the attack in the West Bank, but did not claim it, saying it was a “natural response to the massacres and genocide in the Gaza Strip”.

“We call on all those who carry weapons to direct their bullets at the chests of the occupiers who continue to commit massacres against our people in Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

Israel denies committing acts of genocide in the Gaza war, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 strike on Israel.