The couple’s children, aged four months to nine years old, were lightly injured in the shooting and taken to hospital, an Israeli security source said.
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The perpetrators of the attack have fled the scene and the Israeli military is conducting searches for the culprits, closing the road for traffic, Israeli army said in a statement.
The incident follows the death of a Palestinian man on Monday night, who, the Israeli army alleged, had died when an explosive device he had meant to throw detonated prematurely.
The Israeli forces on Thursday resumed their military-imposed closure of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, allowing Jewish settlers to tour Al Haram Al Sharif compound.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the attack on “Palestinian incitement”.
Israeli security forces flooded the sector where the incident occurred, an AFP journalist saw.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday said Israel’s refusal to release prisoners and stop settlement activity was hampering fresh talks, the same day the Palestinian flag was raised at the United Nations.
The attack comes as tensions continue to flare between Israelis and Palestinians over the Jerusalem site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
Israel’s military, which called the violence a “ruthless, heinous, barbaric attack”, said forces were scouring the area, near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik.
Abbas added: “Our people have placed their hopes on the countries of this organization [i.e., the UN] to help them win their freedom, independence and sovereignty, so that their wish for – and right to – a state of their own might be achieved, along with a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue in line with UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and the [2002] Arab peace initiative”.
Israeli media outlets reported that local clashes ensued between Palestinians and Jewish settlers at the Yizhar junction in the West Bank, south of Nablus, late on Thursday, shortly after news of the attack broke out.
Almost 550,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in contravention of worldwide law.
“This operation was in response to the crimes of the Zionists”, the Palestinian militant group said in a statement. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war, as their future capital.
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Hardline Jewish nationalists see the entire West Bank as part of Israel, which refers to the territory as Judea and Samaria, the names for the ancient biblical kingdoms located there.
