A gunman on Tuesday attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, fatally wounding two soldiers before troops shot him dead.. The military in a statement said the shooting took place in the morning at a military post in Tayasir in the northern part of the West Bank, adding that the troops killed the gunman during a shootout.. “A terrorist fired at the soldiers at a military post in Tayasir,” it said.. According to the military, two other soldiers were severely injured in the attack, while six were slightly wounded.. Meanwhile, Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad praised the attack on the checkpoint, saying the resistance will continue until the occupation is defeated.. Israeli forces have been engaged in what the army says is an operation to thwart terrorism in and around the northern city of Jenin, long a hotbed of militancy.. According to the Israeli commander, Major General Avi Bluth, who is responsible for the West Bank, the attack showed the necessity of continuing with the offensive in the northern part of the territory.. “This morning’s engagement with a despicable terrorist who emerged from the northern Samaria region is the demonstration of the necessity of the counterterrorism operation,” Bluth told journalists when he visited the scene, vowing to “neutralise militants in the area.. The army on Sunday said it had killed at least 50 militants since it launched the operation on January 21.. The Palestinian health ministry said on Monday that Israeli forces had killed 70 people in the territory since the start of the year.. The operation, which has also seen troops levelling buildings in the city’s refugee camp, has drawn condemnation from the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which called Israel’s actions “ethnic cleansing”.. A spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that events in Jenin refugee camp were heading in a catastrophic direction.. “Large parts of the camp were completely destroyed in a series of detonations by the Israeli forces. It is estimated that 100 houses were destroyed or heavily damaged,” Juliette Touma said.. Violence has surged across the West Bank since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack from Gaza sparked war with Israel.. The Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians in the West Bank, many of them militants, since the start of the war.. According to Israeli official figures, at least 32 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the territory over the same period,. Gunman attacks Israeli military checkpoint, injures soldiers
