A car ramming attack killed two Israeli soldiers near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said early Thursday.
The army had earlier reported a car-ramming attack on Wednesday near an Israeli settlement outside Nablus.
It later identified them as soldiers Eliya Hilel and Diego Shvisha Harsaj, both 20 and members of the Kfir brigade.
According to Israeli media, the army has launched a manhunt for the perpetrator of the attack, which came as violence in the West Bank flares against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Israel’s military action in Gazansive has killed at least 36,171 people , mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Since the outbreak of the fighting, violence has surged in the West Bank.
According to Palestinian officials, at least 519 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since October 7.
Not counting Wednesday’s victims, attacks by Palestinians have killed at least 12 Israelis in the West Bank over the same period, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Hamas welcomed the attack near Nablus, saying in a statement it was a “natural response” against the “crimes of the enemy”.
Gaza aid down by two-thirds
The United Nations, which has warned of famine in Gaza, said on Wednesday the amount of humanitarian aid entering the enclave has dropped by two-thirds since Israel began its military operation in the enclave’s southern Rafah region this month. “The amount of food and other aid entering Gaza, already insufficient to meet the soaring needs, has further shrunk since 7 May,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
A daily average of 58 aid trucks reached Gaza from May 7 to Tuesday, compared with a daily average of 176 aid trucks from April 1 to May 6, OCHA said, a drop of 67%.
