JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A heavily pregnant Israeli settler was killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, drawing calls from hardline pro-settler leaders for nearby Palestinian villages to be flattened.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting near the Brukhin settlement in the northern West Bank. The Israeli military has said it is searching for the perpetrator.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Tzeela Gez was shot while in a car with her husband as they were driving to hospital to give birth.
Israeli media reported that Gez was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital, where her baby was delivered by caesarean section. The baby is reportedly in a serious but stable condition, while Gez’s husband Hananel was lightly injured.
The attack, coming amid one of the largest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in two decades, drew angry reactions from Israeli politicians who said the nearby Palestinian towns of Bruqin and az-Zawiya should be destroyed like cities in Gaza.
“Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza, we must also flatten the terror nests in Judea and Samaria,” far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, employing the term often used in Israel for the West Bank.
The chief of the Israeli general staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, visited the troops carrying out a search for the attacker, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was horrified by the incident.
“I am relying on the security forces which, in this case as well, will quickly find the murderers and settle accounts with them and whoever assisted them,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The Israeli military said late on Wednesday that soldiers were in pursuit of the perpetrator. It was not immediately clear if the military or other Israeli authorities had identified those involved.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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