The Israeli military said it was searching for suspects and setting up roadblocks near the town of Hawara, a flashpoint area in the northern West Bank, which has been the scene of repeated shooting attacks and a rampage by Jewish settlers who set light to Palestinian property.
The attack on Saturday happened after Palestinian official media said a 19-year-old Palestinian had died of wounds sustained during an Israeli military raid into the West Bank on Wednesday.
The deaths are part of the worst violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank for nearly two decades. Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed since the start of this year and and about 29 people have been killed by Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
Israeli paramedics said that when they arrived at the scene in Hawara, two Israeli males, aged 60 and 29, were found unconscious with gunshot wounds.
Israeli media reported the two were father and son. Underscoring the severity of the attack, the country’s military chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, visited the scene.
The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sent his condolences to the family and vowed that the military would track down the shooter.
“The security forces are working diligently to find the murderer and settle accounts, just as we have done with all the murderers so far,” Netanyahu said.
Several Israelis have been killed in Hawara in the current round of fighting. The death of two brothers, residents of a nearby settlement, set off a rampage by settlers through the town in February. Dozens of cars and homes were set on fire in some of the worst settler violence in decades. Similar violence has taken place elsewhere in the West Bank since.
Palestinian militant groups praised the Hawara attack. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine posted statements online congratulating the perpetrators, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, said on Saturday that Mohammad Abu Asab, 19, had been shot on Wednesday during an Israeli army incursion into the Balata refugee camp near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. It cited medical officials.
The Israeli military said in its statement on Wednesday that a commando unit had raided Balata seeking to destroy an underground weapons factory when a gunfight erupted.
Wafa reported that during the fighting, Abu Asab was shot in the head and then taken to the Rafidia hospital in Nablus where he later died of his wounds. Palestinian health officials did not immediately confirm the death.
Nor was it immediately clear whether or not Abu Asab had been affiliated with a militant group.
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