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West Bank village between settlers and shooting attacks

The northern West Bank has seen a spate of attacks on Israelis as well as attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian communities
— Orif (Palestinian Territories) (AFP)

A group of Palestinian children helped sweep up rubble Thursday as their village in the occupied West Bank reeled from a near two-hour rampage carried out by Jewish settlers in revenge for a deadly shooting by two villagers.

Orif was thrown into the spotlight of rising violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after Muhanad Shehadeh, 26, and his friend Khaled Sabah, 24, attacked a petrol station outside a nearby Jewish settlement on Tuesday, killing four Israelis and seriously wounding four more.

One of the gunmen was killed by a passerby moments after the shooting, while the other was shot dead by Israeli forces not long afterwards.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said the two men were members and carried out the attack in revenge for an Israeli raid on Jenin refugee camp on Monday that killed six Palestinians.

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