Israel’s military says two soldiers have been killed in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank, as its forces continue a major operation against Palestinian armed groups in the north of the territory.
Another eight soldiers were wounded when a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a checkpoint in Tayasir village, 2km (1.2 miles) north of Tubas, a military statement said. The attacker was shot dead, it said.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad praised the attack as a response to the Israeli operation in Tubas, Jenin and Tulkarm, but neither said they were behind it.
Meanwhile, a UN official warned the situation in Jenin’s refugee camp was heading in a “catastrophic direction”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the start of a large-scale operation to “defeat terrorism” in Jenin on 21 January, three days after the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took effect.
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The operation was expanded into Tulkarm and Tubas last week.
The Palestinian health ministry says Israeli forces have killed 70 Palestinians across the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, since the start of the year.
The figure includes the 25 reported killed in the Jenin area and 13 in the Tubas and Tulkarm areas over the past two weeks.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it killed about 55 “terrorists” and arrested 380 wanted individuals across the West Bank in January.
Israeli media reported that the Palestinian who carried out Tuesday’s shooting attack in Tayasir was able to sneak up to a military post next to the checkpoint before opening fire with an M16 rifle at soldiers stationed there.
Soldiers fired back and a gun battle lasted several minutes before the attacker was killed, they said.
The IDF named the two soldiers who were killed as Sgt. Maj. Ofer Yung, 39, and Sgt. Maj. Avraham Friedman, 43. Two of the eight wounded soldiers were in a serious condition in hospital, it said.
During a visit to the scene later on Tuesday, the IDF’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, promised it would “investigate and draw conclusions” from what he described as the “serious attack”.
“We will increase the counterterrorism activity and expand it to additional areas,” he added.
Hamas praised what it described as the “heroic and qualitative operation carried out by a Palestinian resistance fighter” in Tayasir, saying that it showed “the crimes of the occupation and its aggression against the northern occupied West Bank will not go unpunished”.
