Brit sisters identified as two women shot dead in West Bank

Two sisters killed in a shooting on their family car in the West Bank were British, according to reports.

The siblings, aged 15 and the other in her 20s were shot dead on Friday as they drove near the Hamra settlement.

Their mother was seriously injured in the attack 30 miles north of Jerusalem.

Sky News said the family moved to Israel around 2005.

The three were residents of the Israeli settlement of Efrat, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, said Oded Revivi, the settlement’s mayor.

Local reports suggested they were killed in a Palestinian shooting attack in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The girls’ father was driving in a car behind his wife and daughters and witnessed the attack, Revivi added. Medics said they dragged the unconscious women from the smashed car, which appeared to have been pushed off the road.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant toured the site of the shooting late Friday and vowed to catch the attacker. “It’s just a matter of time, and not much time, until we settle the score,” Netanyahu said.

He also said his Security Cabinet had passed a series of measures overnight. “We acted in Lebanon, we acted in Gaza, we beefed up forces in the field,” he said, promising additional actions “that I cannot divulge at the current time.”

Israel’s military set up roadblocks as it searched for the attackers. No militant group immediately claimed responsibility. But Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem hailed the attack “in retaliation for the crimes committed by Israel in the West Bank and the Al-Aqsa mosque.”

The attack came as Israel unleashed rare airstrikes on Lebanon and bombarded the Gaza Strip on Friday, an escalation that sparked fears of a broader conflict after days of violence over Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are saddened to hear about the deaths of two British-Israeli citizens and the serious injuries sustained by a third individual.

“The UK calls for all parties across the region to de-escalate tensions.”

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