Israeli army kills five Palestinians in West Bank after pregnant settler killed
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People check the devastation in a house after Israeli troops surrounded it and reportedly killed five people who were inside.
PHOTO: AFP
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JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH - Israel's military killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on May 15, hours after a pregnant settler was killed in a shooting, as hardline pro-settler leaders including a government minister called for Palestinian towns to be razed.
The military said in a statement it had killed five "terrorists" and arrested a sixth who had barricaded themselves in a building in Tamoun, following an exchange of gunfire and the use of shoulder-fired missiles by Israeli soldiers.
Tamoun is a Palestinian town about 35km from the Israeli settlement of Brukhin, near which the heavily pregnant woman, Ms Tzeela Gez, was killed on the night of May 14 in a shooting that drew strong condemnation from Israeli leaders.
The military said it was searching for those responsible for May 14's shooting - whom it did not identify - though it was not immediately clear whether the Tamoun operation was linked.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, which occurred amid one of the largest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in two decades and while the Israeli military continues to bombard Gaza.
Gunfire could be heard in Tamoun on May 15, while Reuters footage showed flames and black smoke on the top floor of a house as Israeli soldiers stood on the street outside.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency said the Israeli military was demolishing the house where the Palestinian men had been killed.
The Israeli military said soldiers had identified the "terrorists" in a building during an overnight operation in Tamoun and the nearby city of Tubas.
It did not say how it determined they were terrorists but said soldiers had discovered rifles used by them.
The military also said three armed individuals had been arrested in Tubas.
The Palestinian health ministry said the military had taken the bodies of four of the deceased.
The local Red Crescent said it had recovered a fifth body from a burning building.
Demand for retribution
Ms Gez, the pregnant woman, was shot near the Brukhin settlement while travelling to hospital with her husband to give birth.
She was pronounced dead at the hospital where her baby was delivered by caesarean section, Israeli media reported.
The baby was reportedly in a serious but stable condition, while Ms Gez's husband Hananel was lightly injured.
As retribution, Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said the nearby Palestinian towns of Bruqin and az-Zawiya should be destroyed just as cities in Gaza have been.
"Just as we are flattening Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza (in the Gaza Strip), we must also flatten the terror nests in Judea and Samaria," Mr Smotrich said on X, employing the term often used in Israel for the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped the security forces would quickly find those responsible for Ms Gez's death, while President Israel Herzog expressed his condolences to her family.
The chief of Israel's general staff, Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir, visited the troops searching for Ms Gez's killer on May 15 near Brukhin.
The Israeli military has killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed many homes since it launched an operation in January in the West Bank city of Jenin to root out militants.
Those killed have included members of Hamas and other militant groups but also some civilians, including women and children. REUTERS
