• The attack on Wednesday comes a day after a pair of Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis outside a West Bank settlement
• Witnesses said the Israeli army entered the town and settlers were withdrawing

JERUSALEM: Palestinian residents of a West Bank village say hundreds of Israeli settlers have entered the community and set fire to dozens of homes and cars.

The attack on Wednesday comes a day after a pair of Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis outside a West Bank settlement.

Residents in Turmus Ayya said the settlers rampaged through the main road of the town.

Witnesses said the Israeli army entered the town and settlers were withdrawing.

The Israeli military on Wednesday deployed additional forces across the occupied West Bank, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to build 1,000 new settler homes in an initial response to a Palestinian shooting attack that killed four Israelis a day earlier.

The Israeli settlement announcement threatened to further raise tensions after two days of deadly fighting in the territory. The Palestinians and the international community oppose settlement construction on occupied lands sought by the Palestinians for a future state.

Netanyahu said the homes would be built in Eli — the site of Wednesday’s deadly attack in which a pair of Palestinian gunmen opened fire outside a gas station. His far-right government is dominated by settler leaders and supporters.

“Our answer to terror is to strike it hard and to build our country,” Netanyahu said.

The shooting came a day after seven Palestinians were killed in a daylong battle against Israeli troops in the militant stronghold of Jenin. The worsening violence has created a test for Israel’s government and prompted calls for a widespread military operation in the West Bank.

Israeli media identified the four killed as Harel Masood, 21, Ofer Fayerman, 64, and Elisha Anteman, 18, Nahman-Shmuel Mordoff, 17. An Israeli civilian killed one assailant at the scene, while Israeli troops chased and killed the second shooter after he fled.

The army said it was beefing up its troop presence in the West Bank. On Wednesday morning, it said troops arrested three suspects in the Palestinian village of Urif in connection to the attack and mapped out the homes of the two gunmen ahead of their likely demolition.

Israel demolishes the homes of Palestinian attackers as part of a policy it says aims to deter others, but critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.

Hamas did not officially claim responsibility for the attack, although it identified the two gunmen — Mohannad Faleh, 26, who was killed by a civilian at the scene and Khaled Sabah, 24, who was killed by the army as he fled — as its members.

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s attack, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian property in adjacent villages, causing extensive property damage. At least five Palestinians were wounded in attacks by Israeli settlers, Israel’s army radio reported.

Tuesday’s shooting followed a massive gunbattle between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops in the northern Jenin refugee camp a day earlier. Seven Palestinians were killed and more than 90 others were wounded in that clash. On Wednesday, the death toll from the raid rose to seven when 15-year-old Sadeel Naghniyeh succumbed to wounds sustained in the gunbattle, Palestinian health officials said.

Eight Israeli soldiers were also wounded in the shootout.

Tuesday’s deadly shooting was the latest in a long string of violence in the region over the past year and half that shows no sign of relenting. At least 130 Palestinians and 24 people on the Israeli side have been killed so far this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in the West Bank in response to a string of deadly Palestinian attacks targeting Israeli civilians early in 2022. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state.

AP