Pregnant Israeli settler killed in West Bank shooting

A heavily pregnant Israeli settler was killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, drawing calls from hardline pro-settler leaders for nearby Palestinian villages to be flattened.

The woman, along with a male passenger, was driving near the Israeli settlement of Bruchin in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday when their vehicle was shot at, according to Israeli authorities.

The Beilinson hospital outside of Tel Aviv said medical teams in the trauma ward battled throughout the night to save the woman and her foetus.

"After struggling to save the life of the woman who was critically injured in the shooting attack in Samaria and arrived during resuscitation, the medical teams were forced to pronounce her dead," Beilinson Hospital said in a statement, using the biblical name to refer to the West Bank.

It added that the baby was delivered via caesarean section and transferred to another medical centre. The baby is reportedly in a serious but stable condition, while Gez's husband, Hananel, was in a "mild" condition.

Emergency services had earlier said the woman driver, aged about 30, suffered "critical" gunshot wounds, while a male passenger around the age of 40 was "in a grave state".

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, while the Israeli military has said it is searching for the perpetrator.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Tzeela Gez was shot while in a car with her husband as they were driving to the hospital to give birth.

The attack, coming amid one of the largest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in two decades, drew angry reactions from Israeli politicians who said the nearby Palestinian towns of Bruqin and az-Zawiya should be destroyed like cities in Gaza.

"Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza, we must also flatten the terror nests in Judea and Samaria," far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, employing the term often used in Israel for the West Bank.

Israel's military will use "all the tools" at its disposal to find the perpetrators of a West Bank attack that left a pregnant Israeli woman dead, army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said Thursday.

"We will use all the tools at our disposal and reach the murderers in order to hold them accountable," Zamir said as he visited the scene of the attack on the woman's vehicle in the north of the occupied West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was horrified by the incident.

"I am relying on the security forces which, in this case as well, will quickly find the murderers and settle accounts with them and whoever assisted them," Netanyahu said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear if the military or other Israeli authorities had identified those involved. 

(Reuters)