Jerusalem — Israeli forces killed three militants who had attacked a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the army said.

The military said in a statement that there had been a “terrorist infiltration” in the Adora settlement, around 20 kilometers west of Hebron city, and that Israeli soldiers had come under fire.

The soldiers searched the area and “three assailants were identified and neutralised by the security forces,” the statement said.

When questioned by AFP, the Israeli army confirmed the death of the three assailants, while the Palestinian agency Wafa identified them as a 19-year-old and two 16-year-olds.

Israeli emergency medical service Magen David Adom said its team was treating a man who was shot in the leg. It did not identify the wounded man.

Palestinian officials have not yet commented on the incident.

In a separate incident in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said a man was killed after being severely beaten by Israeli forces in Zeita, north of the city of Tulkarem.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, around 490,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank that are deemed illegal under international law.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since 7 October when the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel that sparked a full-scale conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli army raids and attacks on settlers have killed at least 338 people in the West Bank since then, according to an AFP tally based on sources on both sides.

More than 520 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank last year, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Over the same period, Palestinian militants carried out attacks in Israel and the West Bank that killed at least 41 people, according to the Shin Bet security agency.

Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since the Six-Day War of 1967.

 WITH AFP