The attack happened at a gas station near the West Bank settlement of Eli ■ One Palestinian assailant was shot by an armed civilian, the other escaped and was later shot and killed by Israeli security forces
Four Israelis were killed and another four were wounded Tuesday afternoon in a shooting near a gas station in the central West Bank settlement of Eli, according to Magen David Adom emergency services. Three of the wounded are in light to moderate condition and a fourth is in serious condition.
The four Israelis killed in the attack have been identified as 18-year-old Elisha Antman of Eli, 21-year-old Harel Masoud of Yad Binyamin, 17-year-old Nachman Mordof of Ahiya and 63-year-old Ofer Feierman from Eli.
According to a military source, the shooters, 26-years-old Mohand Shahada and 24-years-old Khaled Sabah, entered a restaurant in the gas station and killed three people. As they left, they killed another person.
An Israeli civilian at the gas station nearby manged to shoot and kill Shahada while Sabah escaped in a car and drove off toward the Tapuach settlement. He was located after two hours and killed by Israeli army forces, in a shooting that moderately wounded another Palestinian.
Highway 60, the main road crossing into the West Bank, was blocked to traffic in the area as well.
Shahada was a student activist in a pro-Hamas group who had been released from Megiddo Prison two and a half years ago. He was incarcerated in the same high security section together with Sabah, after the two threw an explosive device in an open area near the Palestinian village of Ya’bad.
Following the attack, Hamas praised Shahada’s actions but did not claim responsibility. Their spokesperson said that “the [shooting] in Eli is a response to Israel’s crimes carried out [on Monday] at the Jenin refugee camp, and the aggression against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The struggle won’t stop until our people are free and independent.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will hold a security assessment later this evening with IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi, Shin Bet security service head Ronen Bar and other senior security officials. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he was canceling a cabinet meeting scheduled to discuss the high cost of living to visit the scene of the attack.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a statement, saying that “Another shooting and yet another one. We’re like a sitting duck.” Ben-Gvir then called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to “go on a wide military operation and resume the policy of targeted assassinations in the West Bank.”
Ben-Gvir demanded that the army will “take down their buildings” and impose the death penalty on those convicted of terrorism against Israeli citizens.
Danny Danon, a relatively moderate Likud lawmaker, called for a military operation in the West Bank: “We demand a military operation in Judea and Samaria now. Not later. Now is the time to strike hard and fast,” he wrote, adding that “I call on our prime minister to order a large-scale military operation and immediately reinstate the security barriers that were removed. The people of Israel are united and support the government, the army and our internal security services in the realization of this urgent program which will save countless innocent lives.”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, wrote on Twitter that he is “Deeply concerned about the civilian deaths and injuries that have occurred in the West Bank these past 48 hours, including that of minors. Praying for the families as they mourn the loss of loved ones, or tend to those injured.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Herzog, took Nides to task for the tweet, saying “Any attempt of a so called ‘balanced’ condemnation is misguided and disrespectful to the memory of the victims.”
Nides later published an additional tweet where he highlighted the attack, saying “I condemn in the strongest terms the senseless murder of four innocent Israelis today – my heart is with their grieving family members.”
Religious Zionism lawmaker Zvi Sukkot said in a statement that he is “ashamed to be part of the coalition. It feels like [Benny] Gantz or [Ehud] Barak are defense minister. We must begin a military operation.”
The IDF Spokesperson, Gen. Daniel Hagari, said that Chief of Staff Halevi had ordered the reinforcement of troops throughout the sector. Referring to the calls to announce a military operation, Hagari said that “We’ll examine the situation and see if we need to act more drastically.”
Later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that “All options are on the table. We’ll continue to fight against terror with all our strength, and we’ll defeat it. […] Everyone who harmed us is either in the grave or in prison. It’ll be the same in this case.”
Tuesday’s shooting follows a string of violence across the West Bank over the last couple of days. Early Tuesday morning, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli army fire near Bethlehem.
On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces conducted a raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where six Palestinians were killed and seven IDF soldiers were injured.