The Israeli army announced on Wednesday the launch of intensive search operations and the construction of roadblocks in the northern West Bank to track down two Palestinian militants who killed a settler.
Rabbi Raziel Shibah was shot dead Tuesday evening as he was driving near the settlement of Havat Gilad, where he lives. Israeli army radio reported that 22 bullets had been found on his car.
"Security forces, with the support of special forces, are carrying out operations in the area of attack," the military said in a statement.
Palestinians inside and outside the neighboring villages of Nablus were subjected to "security checks," the statement said.
Palestinian security sources said no arrests had been made so far and Israeli settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles at the scene of the attack.
Before he was taken to hospital, the man managed to make a phone call, state radio said. "I was shot near the edges of Gail," he said, before collapsing.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin confirmed in a statement that "the security forces will track down the perpetrators and bring them to justice."
Housing Minister Yoav Galant said in an interview with Army Radio that "the houses of terrorists who kill Israelis in cold blood and expel their families to Syria are being destroyed."
Commenting on the attack, he said a spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in a brief statement published by the official website of the Brigades, "the Nablus operation was the first response my fire to remind the leaders of the enemy and behind that what Tkhcouna is coming and that the West Ayash and Indians will remain a dagger in Khasrtkm."
For its part, Hamas said in a statement that it "blessed the heroic operation of Nablus, which comes as a result of violations of the Zionist occupation and crimes against our people in the West Bank and Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and has built settlements that the international community considers illegal.
Some 400,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured 50 years ago.
Some 200,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1980, a move not recognized by the international community.
On December 6, US President Donald Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, sparking condemnation in the Arab and Muslim worlds and the international community.
Since then, 14 Palestinians and Israelis have been killed in clashes with the Israeli army along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip or Israeli air strikes.
