GAZA/RAMALLAH, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad group in the Gaza Strip supported on Thursday the shooting attack that killed at least two Israeli soldiers near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Abdulatif al-Qanoua, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in an emailed press statement that the shooting operation "was a response to the crimes and behavior of the Israeli occupation."
"The men and the youths of the West Bank will carry on being revolutionists in the face of the occupation and will remain in a status of a permanent confrontation with it until it is defeated," he said.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza, Dawood Shihab, said in another statement that his group "is fully confident and fully convinced that the occupation will be one day defeated."
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli army declared the city of Ramallah a closed military zone following a shooting attack carried out against Israeli soldiers near Ramallah, leaving at least two dead, according to an Israeli army spokesman.
Israeli Radio reported that the shooting attack was carried out from a fast-driving car, adding that other soldiers in the area opened fire at the car which escaped immediately from the scene. Two other soldiers were injured in the attack.
Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian official in charge of the Israeli settlement file in the West Bank, told Xinhua that the Israeli army had closed down the main checkpoint that leads to the West Bank city of Nablus.
He went on saying that dozens of Israeli settlers south of the city attacked Palestinian cars and vehicles, causing severe damage.
Violence in the West Bank has mounted after three Palestinians were killed in three separate incidents within the past few hours, including two in the West Bank and one in East Jerusalem.
Palestinian Prime Minister of the consensus government Rami Hamdallah told a news briefing in Ramallah earlier on Thursday that the international community has to intervene to ensure protection to the Palestinians.
"The world's silence towards what is going on in the Palestinian territories has encouraged Israel to commit more violations and breach the international laws and conventions," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, The armed wing of Islamic Hamas movement, al-Qassam Brigades, said that the two who were killed by Israeli army gunfire earlier in the West Bank are militant members of the group.
Overnight and Thursday predawn, the Israeli army killed Salleh Barghouti and Ashraf Na'alwa, both Hamas militants, who were responsible for carrying out two separate armed attacks in October and last week, which killed and wounded 10 Israelis.
"Our resistance will continue along the map of the homeland. There is still a lot to be done, which will confuse the enemy's calculations," the Hamas armed wing said in a press statement.
Over the past few weeks, Hamas militants escalated their military actions against Israeli soldiers and settlers. Around four shooting attacks were carried out in the West Bank within the last two months.
"The enemy should not dream of security, safety and stability in our valiant area, the West Bank," said the statement, adding that "our fire will burn the occupiers."
Israeli and the Palestinian Authority (PA) security apparatuses have been cooperating in the West Bank to prevent violence. However, Hamas leadership has been calling on the PA to sever all kinds of security cooperation with Israel.
