Katz: Deadly West Bank terror attack was ‘act of war’ that will be answered in kind

IDF says 3 Palestinian gunmen killed in drone strike, gun battle amid counterterror operation; IDF soldier seriously wounded; perpetrators of al-Fundaq shooting still on the lam

Defense Minister Israel Katz, left, and senior IDF officers visit the scene of a deadly terror attack a day earlier in the West Bank village of al-Funduq, January 7, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)
Defense Minister Israel Katz, left, and senior IDF officers visit the scene of a deadly terror attack a day earlier in the West Bank village of al-Funduq, January 7, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

As Israel Defense Forces troops carried out counterterrorism raids across the West Bank, Defense Minister Israel Katz visited on Tuesday the site of a deadly terror attack in the Palestinian village of al-Funduq, which he said was an “act of war” that will be answered in kind.

Two elderly women and an off-duty cop were killed and eight Israelis were wounded when Palestinian terrorists opened fire on vehicles as they passed through the village on Monday.

The three perpetrators from the Jenin area of the northern West Bank are still at large.

“The despicable, murderous terror attack that occurred here yesterday is an act of war for all intents and purposes, and it will be answered accordingly,” Katz said in remarks provided by his office.

“We will hit the terrorists and those who sent them, and we will act powerfully against the places from where the terrorists came,” he said.

Far-right government members and settler leaders have called for military action in the West Bank resembling that taken in the Gaza Strip, where the IDF has evacuated and destroyed entire cities that it said had become terror strongholds.

Mourners at the cemetery of the settlement of Kedumim in the West Bank on January 7, 2025, for the funeral of Rachel Cohen, 73, killed in a terror shooting the previous day by Palestinian gunmen in the village of Al-Funduq (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

According to a preliminary IDF probe, the terrorists, armed with assault rifles, initially opened fire at a civilian car from a close range, killing Rachel Cohen, 73, and Aliza Raiz, 70.

They then fired at a bus farther away, injuring eight people, at which point an armed civilian opened fire with a handgun, causing the gunmen to get back in their car and flee.

While the terrorists were escaping, they opened fire on another car, killing off-duty police officer Master Sgt. Elad Yaakov Winkelstein, 35.

Master Sgt. Elad Yaakov Winkelstein (left), 35, Rachel Cohen (center), 73 and Aliza Raiz (right), 70, were killed in a terror shooting attack in the West Bank village of al-Funduq on January 6, 2025. (Courtesy)

The military said it had launched a manhunt for the three perpetrators, two of whom were already wanted for involvement in terror activity, while the third was still unidentified.

The army said it set up roadblocks near the attack site, and placed cordons around the city of Nablus and several other nearby villages.

Amid an apparently unrelated operation overnight, the IDF said it killed two Palestinian gunmen who were shooting at troops in the town of Tamun, in the Jordan Valley, during a brigade-level counterterrorism raid in the area.

The military said the group of gunmen was targeted with a drone strike. Several suspects were detained and weapons were seized during the operation, the military said.

Separately, an IDF soldier was seriously wounded during an overnight exchange of fire with a Hamas gunman in the West Bank village of Talluza, near Nablus. The soldier, a reservist with the Samaria Regional Brigade’s 7037th Battalion, was taken to a hospital for treatment.

According to the military, the troops killed the gunman in close-quarters combat and seized an AK-type assault rifle. A suspect was also detained in the village.

Hamas claimed the gunman, Jaafar Ahmed Dababseh, as a member of the terror group.

Palestinians walk on a street apparently damaged in an Israeli counterterror operation in Al-Fara’a in the West Bank, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Violence in the West Bank has mounted since October 7, 2023, when Hamas assaulted southern Israel, sparking war in Gaza and unrest across the region. Since then, 46 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank, including some carried out by Israeli citizens.

Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank. Much of the violence has been concentrated near Nablus, Jenin and other Palestinian cities in the northern West Bank where PA control has steadily waned over the years.

According to the PA health ministry, more than 835 West Bank Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.

Additionally, settler violence against Palestinians has soared since the Hamas massacre, with security forces accused of turning a blind eye to the attacks.

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