JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Three Israeli police officers were killed on Sunday when their vehicle came under fire near the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials said, adding to days of violence in the Palestinian territory.
The military confirmed the attack in the area of the Idna Tarqumiyah Junction, saying that security forces were searching for the assailants.
Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids across the West Bank since last Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the area in months, which Israel says is aimed at rooting out Islamist militants.
The operation, coinciding with continued fierce fighting in Gaza despite ceasefire talks, has drawn international calls for a halt.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said three policemen had been in the vehicle and were killed in Sunday’s attack.
“We are fighting on all fronts against a cruel enemy who wants to murder us all,” Netanyahu said, also referring to six Israeli hostages killed in captivity in Gaza and whose bodies were recovered from a tunnel on Sunday.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardline member of Israel’s security cabinet, called for more action against Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
“We need to do now what we didn’t do that awful night and launch a pre-emptive strike and strike terrorism hard,” he said, referring to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“We are committed to eliminating terrorism on all fronts,” he said, speaking from the scene of Sunday’s attack.
Israel’s ambulance service had initially said two people had been killed and a third critically wounded.
Hamas, which is fighting a war with Israel in Gaza, praised the attack in the West Bank, but did not claim it, saying it was a “natural response to the massacres and genocide in the Gaza Strip”.
“We call on all those who carry weapons to direct their bullets at the chests of the occupiers who continue to commit massacres against our people in Gaza Strip,” the statement said.
Israel denies committing acts of genocide in the Gaza war, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 strike on Israel.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Editing by William Mallard, Mark Potter, Sharon Singleton, Philippa Fletcher)
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