GUNMEN opened fire on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank today, killing at least three people and wounding seven. 

Violence has surged in the territory since Israel began its brutal retaliation to Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack from Gaza.

Today’s attack occurred in the Palestinian village of al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said two women in their sixties and a man in his forties had been killed and the military said it was looking for the attackers.

Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years. The Israeli military has launched near-nightly raids across the territory that frequently trigger gun battle with militants. 

There has also been a sharp rise in attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers, leading the United States, Tel Aviv’s biggest backer, to impose sanctions.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 838 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza. 

Most appear to have been militants killed in battles with Israeli troops, but the dead also include participants in violent protests and civilian bystanders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “reach the despicable murderers” behind today’s attack and “settle accounts with them and with everyone who assisted them.”

He added: “No-one will be spared.”

Hamas praised the attack in a statement but did not claim responsibility for it.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, but the Palestinians want all three territories for a future state.

Some three million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank, with the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority administering the population centres.

Over 500,000 settlers with Israeli citizenship inhabit well over 100 settlements across the occupied territory, ranging from small hilltop outposts to sprawling communities that resemble suburbs or small towns. 

Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal.

Meanwhile, talks are taking place in Qatar to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of prisoners and hostages by both sides.

A senior Hamas official told the BBC today that the group has a list of 34 hostages that it is willing to release in the first stage of a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

But Mr Netanyahu’s office denied receiving the list and added that, “to date, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment from Hamas regarding the status of the abductees on the list.”