One man was killed and three people injured in an car ramming and stabbing attack in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Israeli military and ambulance service said on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said in a statement two suspected attackers were also killed by soldiers, but did not provide further details. It said explosive materials were found in the vehicle used by the suspects, which were being neutralised by bomb disposal specialists, Reuters reported.
The Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority named the assailants as Imran al-Atrash and Walid Sabbarna, two 18-year-olds from the Hebron area, and said that Israeli forces were "holding their bodies".
The attack took place between Bethlehem and Hebron at a junction at the entrance to a cluster of Israeli illegal settlements known as the Gush Etzion bloc.
The Israeli ambulance service said a 30-year-old man died of a stab wound. One woman is in serious condition, while a man and boy are in moderate condition.
Israeli settler attacks
This came after extremist Israeli settlers set several Palestinian homes and vehicles ablaze in the West Bank on Monday, the latest in a series of intensified settler attacks in the occupied territory.
The attacks took place in the village of Jab'a, southwest of Bethlehem, which saw settlers break into residential homes, pelt properties with stones, and throw Molotov cocktails.
Locals said that the Israeli settlers threatened them and ordered to leave, saying that they would "break and burn down" their homes.
In videos shared online, Palestinian vehicles appeared charred, while glass windows were broken and racist graffiti such as 'Death to Arabs,' could be seen sprayed on the neighbourhood’s walls.
The village council's head, Dhiab Mashaleh, told the Palestinian news agency Wafa that villagers managed to extinguish the fires "without any reported injuries," but that "significant material damage was inflicted on the targeted houses and vehicles".
The material losses are said to be estimated at $300,000.
One witness described the arson attacks as "hours of sheer terror," to The New Arab’s Arabic-language site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
Masha'leh also described the perpetrators as mostly young men aged between 16 and 22, who likely came from the nearby illegal outposts of Givat and Bat Ayin, which are four kilometers away from Jab'a.
Though he didn't explicitly mention Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the perpetrators a "small, extremist group" who "don't represent" settlers, and expressed support to the military in their pursuit of the attackers.
The Israeli military also confirmed that the attack took place.
Jab'a's village council head, however, blamed the military for allowing the attack to happen, and for merely "writing a report" on the incident after they arrived at the scene half an hour later.
The Israeli government has come under mounting pressure from the international community in recent weeks to curb settler attacks against Palestinians.
'Revenge' attack
The incident is being interpreted as a revenge attack following the Israeli authorities’ decision to destroy the illegal outpost of Tzur Misgavi, located in the Gush Etzion settlement area, not far from Bethlehem.
Israeli authorities decided to greenlight the illegal outpost's destruction and evacuation over what it described as violence and high crime activity.
Also in the West Bank, settlers set fire to Bedouin homes in the Al-Shuyukh area south of Hebron on Tuesday.
Hassan Mleihat, the general supervisor of the Al-Baydar human rights organisation, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the uptick in settler violence "threatens Palestinians' stability, social well-being and economic activity," as well as "scarring them psychologically".
In another development, Mleihat said settlers deliberately released cattle onto Palestinian farmland in Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, damaging local crops.
The West Bank has witnessed a significant increase in Israeli settler and army violence in recent weeks, in coincidence with the olive harvesting season, and the implementation of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli violence in the territory, occupied since 1967, escalated dramatically in parallel with the Gaza war launched in October 2023.
Over 1,000 Palestinians from the West Bank have been killed since, with over 18,000 arrested. More than 9,100 remain in prison, including those under administrative detention.