Israeli killed in West Bank after spate of settler attacks against Palestinians

palestinian arab attackers stabbed an Israeli to demise and maimed tercet thomas more in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday before being shot down by troops, in the latest violence to rock the occupied territory, the Israeli military said.

The attack follows a spate of settler violence against Palestinians across the West Bank. Officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have warned that such unrest could spill over and undermine the fragile truce in Gaza.

It came a day after the UN Security Council gave its backing to U.S. President Donald Trump's blueprint to secure and govern Gaza. Hamas rejected the plan as other countries signalled excitement and readiness to help implement it.

The Israeli military said the stabbing took place at the Gush Etzion junction south of Jerusalem, a site of many past attacks by Palestinian militants.

Israel's emergency rescue services said a 71-year-old man died of stab wounds at the scene. Three other people were hospitalized, including a woman in serious condition and a teenager in moderate condition.

The military said Israeli troops then opened fire, killing two Palestinian attackers. The Palestinian Health Ministry later identified them as two 18-year-olds from the Hebron area.

Hamas did not claim responsibility for the attack, but in a statement called it "a normal response to the occupation's attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause," vowing that Israeli aggression wouldn't go unchallenged.

Also Tuesday, Al Jazeera's local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, said Israeli forces shot cameraman Fady Yasmeen in both legs while he was covering a protest in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. The military did not respond to a request for comment.

The violence came a day after Israeli settlers launched a rampage through the Palestinian village of al-Jab'a, torching homes and cars, drawing a rare condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli leaders.

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Netanyahu on Tuesday applauded the UN approval of Trump's plan for postwar Gaza.

"We believe that President Trump‘s plan will lead to peace and prosperity, because it insists upon full demilitarization, disarmament and the deradicalization of Gaza," Netanyahu's office wrote on X.

The resolution provides a wide mandate for an international force to provide security in war-devastated Gaza, approves a transitional authority called the Board of Peace to be overseen by Trump and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.

The plan calls for the stabilization force to ensure "the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups." It authorizes the force "to use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate" in compliance with international law, which is UN language for the use of military force.

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Hamas said Monday that the force's mandate including disarmament "strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation." It said the resolution did not "meet the level of our Palestinian people's political and humanitarian demands and rights."

Hamas demanded that any international force be under UN supervision, deploy only at Gaza's borders to monitor the ceasefire and operate exclusively with Palestinian institutions.

The UN security council move brought some mixed reactions from within Gaza.

Muhammad al-Turk, 27, said he’s against the resolution as it stands.

Inas Jabour, 26, meanwhile, said residents are ready for the implementation of the plan.

“It will protect our rights and will protect our dignity as human beings,” Jabour said.

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the resolution and said it was ready to immediately implement it, in cooperation with the U.S., the UN, and other Arab and European states.

Palestinians largely view the PA, which governs semiautonomous zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as weak and corrupt. The authority's security coordination with Israel is extremely unpopular, and many Palestinians see it as a subcontractor of the occupation.

The UN vote came after nearly two weeks of negotiations, when Arab nations and the Palestinians pressed the United States to strengthen language about Palestinian self-determination. The proposal still gives no timeline or guarantee for an independent state, only saying it's possible after advances in the reconstruction of Gaza and reforms of the Palestinian Authority.

The U.S. Revised the resolution to say that after those steps, "the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood."

"The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence," it adds.

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A key to the resolution's adoption was support from Arab and other Muslim nations that had been critical for the ceasefire and could potentially contribute to the international force.

The vote shores up hopes that Gaza's fragile ceasefire will be maintained following a war set off by Hamas's surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military response has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Tuesday that the international community needed to "work together to take forward the 20-point plan and to turn it into a just and lasting peace."

Cooper called for "urgent action to open all the crossings, lift restrictions and flood Gaza with aid."

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