Latest updates: 2 Palestinians killed after West Bank shootings

Hours after the shooting, Israeli settlers streamed through Palestinian towns, trying to torch property and smashing cars with stones. A few settlers opened fire at Palestinians who had ventured out of their homes to confront them, said Nablus official Ghassan Daghlas.

Dozens of Palestinians were attacked and wounded by rocks throughout the Nablus governorate, he said, including a Palestinian journalist struck in the face. Videos shared online showed giant fires tearing through the countryside.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was convening with the Israeli army chief and other top security officials to discuss a response to the shooting.

“Now is the time for a military operation in Judea and Samaria,” said Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, referring to the West Bank.

From the scene of the shooting, he demanded that the government launch “targeted assassinations from the air,” “take down buildings,” deport Palestinian fighters and impose the death penalty.

The head of the Yesha Council, the Israeli settlers’ umbrella organisation, echoed calls for a “broad [military] operation”.

“We cannot continue to absorb these blows and hope the wave of terrorism will just pass,” said Shlomo Ne’eman.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Ramallah, says the Palestinian Authority tends to be “pretty quiet” when this kind of incident takes place.

“We have had official reaction, though, from Hamas in Gaza, saying that they congratulate what they call a heroic operation. They don’t specifically say that it’s one they guided or ordered from there or from any other centralised cells here,” Fawcett said.

What has been happening in recent months are “individualistic and opportunistic attacks” by Palestinians, some of them affiliated with armed groups and some of them not, he added.

“These two … are affiliated to Hamas’s armed wing.”

Israel is concerned that Palestinians are increasingly taking up arms and Jenin is becoming a symbol of resistance.

Read more here to learn why Jenin keeps getting targeted and how the latest raid was different.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Ramallah, said there will be “extremely large-scale Israeli operations”.

“We’re seeing once again the Palestinian town of Huwara, just south of Nablus – there are settlers there that are attacking Palestinian homes and property, and potentially Palestinians as well,” Fawcett said.

“Back in February, after another shooting attack, two Palestinians were killed there as a number of Palestinian homes and buildings were burned to the ground,” he added.

“This is one of a number of outbursts of settler violence against Palestinians in the wake of this afternoon’s shooting attack.”

Tor Wennesland, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, says he is “deeply alarmed by the continuing cycle of violence & appalled by the continued loss of civilian lives”.

In a Twitter post, he urged “all sides to refrain from steps that could further enflame an already volatile situation”.

Gideon Levy, an Israeli author and a Haaretz columnist, says Israel “tried all the ways, all the methods … and it never succeeded to put an end to the Palestinian just resistance to the occupation”.

“So more force will bring more resistance, and more resistance will bring more force – and both will bring more bloodshed and we go nowhere,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

“The only solution is obviously a political one, but nobody even bothers to try a political solution,” he said.

“There will be [international] condemnations, … but as long as the international community does not get involved in actions, … everyone knows that this has no meaning.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government will use all options available to fight those trying to “hurt” his people.

“Our forces are now working in the field to hold the killers accountable. We have proven in recent months that we take revenge on all murderers without any exception,” he said.

“Whoever harms us will either end up in the grave or in prison. This is what will happen in this case as well. And I want to say to all those who see to harm us: All options are open.”

The two slain men accused of the attack on the settlers had been imprisoned by Israel in 2020, local media report.

They were arrested after throwing stones towards violent settlers near Nablus. The pair shared a prison cell between July and October of that year before being released.

Tuesday’s attack took place a day after an hours-long gun battle between Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops backed by helicopter gunships in Jenin, a major West Bank stronghold of Palestinian armed groups.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Ramallah, said the first suspect was shot dead at the scene, while the second suspect was killed near the town of Tubas in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli military said a civilian “neutralised” one gunman.

The Palestinians were identified as Mohannad Faleh Shhadeh, 26, and Khaled Mostafa Sbah. Both are reportedly from the village of Urif near Nablus.

Sbah was shot in a taxi in the neck and upper torso, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, the group that governs the besieged Gaza Strip, described the shooting as a “response to the crimes of the [Israeli] occupation” in Jenin and elsewhere.

Hamas later said one of the attackers was a member of its armed wing.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also commended the attack, saying it was a natural response to growing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.

The armed group said it considered the shooting to be part of Palestinians’ “legitimate right to exercise self-defence”.