Three Israelis police officers – two men and one woman – have been killed in a suspected Palestinian attack in the southern West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported on Sunday.
Citing police chief Daniel Levy, Israeli media outlets reported that the three victims of the attack near Hebron were police officers.
The Israeli military said that the assailants opened fire on a vehicle in which the three victims were travelling at a military checkpoint.
Security forces are currently searching for the attackers in the southern West Bank, it said.
Israeli troops were encircling a residence in Hebron with the suspected perpetrator inside, the IDF said later on Sunday.
“A terrorist was eliminated at the scene,” according to the statement.
Israel launched a military operation in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, citing a significant increase in attacks on Israelis as the justification for the action.
The operation is aimed at targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, it said.
The situation in the West Bank has deteriorated significantly since the outbreak of the Gaza war which was triggered by the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on October 7.
Since then, according to the Health Ministry in Ramallah, 648 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations, confrontations or their own attacks in the West Bank.
