Israeli father and son, Palestinians killed in West Bank

An Israeli father and son were shot dead in an apparent ambush Friday near Hebron on a day that also saw three Palestinians die after being shot by Israeli soldiers.

Unknown assailants killed the two Israelis when he opened fire on a car near the Jewish settlement of Otniel, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the army said.

A woman and an adolescent boy were wounded, hospital sources said.

Photographs from the scene showed the vehicle in a ditch, its doors open and the inside bloodied.

"Two Israelis were murdered... when shots were fired at their vehicle near Hebron" in a "terrorist" attack, an army statement said, adding that the gunman or gunmen had fled the area.

It was the most serious attack on Israelis in nearly a month and sparked a manhunt, with soldiers backed by air units deploying en masse in the neighbouring Palestinian communities of Yatta and As Samou, an AFP journalist said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring the attackers to justice.

"We will get to these heinous murderers and we will bring them to justice as we have done in the past," he said in a statement.

Israeli forces took less than a week to arrest the alleged perpetrators of an attack that killed two settlers on 1 October and sparked the latest wave of violence.

Israel says they belonged to a Hamas cell, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip and is a staunch enemy of the Jewish state.

Caption: Palestinian protesters throw stones towards Israeli security forces at the entrance to Al-Bireh

Photo: www.channelnewsasia.com