The Israeli army said on Saturday two Palestinians were killed overnight while preparing to carry out bombings in the occupied West Bank, where an Israeli operation entered a fourth day.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza, issued a statement hailing a “heroic operation” in the south of the West Bank, saying it came at “a sensitive time” with Israeli forces pressing on with raids in the north of the territory.
Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, similarly said it “congratulates” the perpetrators of what it called a “coordinated attack”.
The Israeli army described a vehicle explosion at a petrol station in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc as “an attempted car bombing by a terrorist” who was later killed.
An army officer “was moderately injured, and a reservist officer responsible for the security in a nearby community sustained minor injuries,” it said in a statement.
In the second incident, the head of security in the Israeli settlement of Karmei Zur engaged in a car chase with a “terrorist” who had infiltrated the settlement compound, leading to a collision and “the terrorist being neutralised shortly after”, the statement said.
“During the confrontation, an explosive device in the terrorist’s car detonated,” it added.
Since Wednesday at least 20 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, most of them militants, in simultaneous raids in several cities in the northern West Bank.
Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camps, long a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.
