Scores wounded as Israeli military demolishes gunman's home in latest West Bank violence

The Palestinian Red Crescent says it responded to 165 cases of 'toxic gas' inhalation

An investigator searches for clues at the scene where three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike near Jenin. Reuters

Israeli troops entered the northern part of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday morning to demolish the house of a Palestinian gunman accused of killing an Israeli soldier in October.

Abdel Kamel Jouri, along with the alleged second assailant Osama Taweel, have been accused of killing Staff Sgt Ido Baruch, outside Nablus, according to the Israeli military.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 165 people who inhaled “toxic gas” fired by Israeli troops during Thursday morning's raid adding that one of its ambulances was damaged.

Taweel's home was demolished last week, in a raid that killed one.

Israel's military regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinian attackers, a controversial practice that it says acts as a deterrence, although rights groups condemn it as a form of collective punishment.

The demolition came during a day of chaos in the West Bank after Israeli settlers rampaged through a number of Palestinian towns in apparent retaliation at the killing of four Israelis at a petrol station outside the settlement of Eli.

The violence is some of the worst the West Bank has witnessed in years, which has led to Israel's military deploying firepower not seen in almost two decades.

On Wednesday evening, three people were killed in a rare drone strike near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. The Israeli military says the dead are suspected militants.

A number of outlets have reported that the killings mark the first drone strike of its type in the West Bank since 2006.

In a similar instance, Israeli forces deployed an Apache helicopter to the same city on Monday, after troops were stranded during a morning raid.

Seven Palestinians were killed and more than 90 wounded. Eight Israeli troops were also wounded.

Since then, settlers and Palestinians have clashed across the region.

On Tuesday, one Palestinian was killed and homes and vehicles were set alight by Israeli settlers in the town of Turmus Aya.

Tensions have been exacerbated by Israel's government committing to more settlement activity in the West Bank, in an apparent response to Palestinian attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday afternoon announced that his government was advancing the planning of 1,000 new homes in Eli.

Mr Netanyahu said, “Our answer to terrorism is to strike at it forcefully and build up our country”.

His coalition, widely viewed to be the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, contains several ardently pro-settlement politicians.

The announcement of the expansion came despite Washington, Israel’s most important ally, urging the country’s government recently to delay plans to expand a deeply controversial project east of the contested city of Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, Washington repeated its opposition to settlement expansion.

“We've been very clear about this, that unilateral actions such as this one such as settlement advancement, will only incite tensions and undermine the prospect of a two-state solution,” said US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.

The US comments come as US Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf visited Israel's National Security Adviser in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Ms Leaf expressed condolences on behalf of the Biden administration following the killing of the four Israelis just outside Eli on Tuesday, an Israeli government press release said.

She also discussed ways to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank through regional co-operation.

UN anger

On Monday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres repeated his opposition to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a day after the country's conservative government approved other legislation to speed up their construction.

“Palestinians under Israeli occupation do need protection,” said Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied territories.

“Brutality, coming either from Israeli settlers or from the army, will not stop simply because the system is not designed to protect the Palestinians. Rather the contrary.”