Israel demolishes homes in West Bank after fatal attack

Suspected Palestinian militants wounded five Israelis today before two gunmen died in a prolonged shootout, leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the closure of the West Bank days before Israeli elections.

Mr Netanyahu, facing a tight race for a new term in Tuesday's election, said that Israeli troops prevented what could have been a major attack, with the assailants allegedly carrying a large quantity of ammunition in their vehicle.

A journalist who witnessed the firefight saw two Palestinian men in casual attire and armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle exchanging fire with Israeli forces at a checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Hebron.

The journalist reported that Israeli forces eventually shot and killed the attackers.

The Israeli military said soldiers had rushed to the Judea Junction area, also known as the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint, after the early-morning shooting attack.

"IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers eliminated two terrorists and continue searches in the area," it said in a statement.

The initial shooting wounded five people, two of whom were in critical condition, said Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency medical rescue service.

Mr Netanyahu, running for a new term in elections on Tuesday, called for all political meetings to be cancelled today due to the attack.

"I salute the courage of our soldiers who acted with determination and prevented what could have been a major attack," Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.

"I have instructed the IDF and security forces to impose an immediate cordon on the city of Hebron and to prepare for a full lockdown of all of Judea and Samaria starting today," Netanyahu said, using the biblical name for the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli National Security Minister and far-right firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been rising in the polls, called for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to be dismantled because of the attack.

"The Palestinian Authority must be dismantled and demilitarized, and its terror infrastructure wiped out completely," he said in a statement.

No evidence suggests that the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was connected to the attack.

Gadi Eisenkot, the former army chief who is Netanyahu's top rival in the election, praised the response by troops.

"Like all Israelis, I pray for the complete and quick recovery of the injured," he said.

The incident comes as tensions soar in the West Bank, including over attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian olive harvesters, and days ahead of Israeli elections.

According to a tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 1,113 Palestinians in the territory since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israeli figures show at least 49 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period.

Israeli strikes kill four in Gaza

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least four people in the Gaza Strip in separate incidents yesterday, health officials in the enclave said.

In Gaza City, a strike on a car killed at least one person, medics said. They earlier said there had been two deaths.

A crowd gathered around the burning wreckage, as orange-vested emergency crews sprayed it with water, photos from the scene showed.

Other strikes killed a Palestinian man on a bike in the southern city of Khan Younis and a man near Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and gunfire killed a woman near the Jabalia refugee camp, in the north, the medics added.

Israel's military said it had struck Hamas militants in Khan Younis, Nuseirat and Gaza City, but that it was not aware of the reported incident in Jabalia.

The Hamas-led Interior Ministry in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike killed a non-commissioned officer and wounded another officer from the drug control police department after hitting their vehicle while returning from an assignment in Tel al-Hawa neighborhood.

Israel, which says the Hamas militant group has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of a year-old ceasefire, has stepped up strikes on the group in recent weeks.

Hamas has denied trying to carry out attacks or rebuild its arsenal and accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza peace deal.

Last year's US-brokered ceasefire calls for eventual reconstruction of the territory. But little progress has been made as negotiators have failed to agree terms for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its troops.

Israeli airstrikes have continued. At least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire, according to the territory's health officials, while Israel says four soldiers have been killed.

Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

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