Israeli Parents Shot Dead Driving In West Bank

A gun attack in the Occupied West Bank has left an Israeli couple dead and their four young children slightly injured.

The family were driving past the Palestinian village of Beit Furik near the city of Nablus on Thursday night when the shooting took place.

The number of gunmen is not known.

Israel’s military spokesman described the attack as "ruthless, heinous, barbaric" and announced four battalions would be deployed to the area to prevent violent escalation.

The victims have been named in Israeli media as Eitam and Naama Henkin, who are believed to have been residents of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Neria, near Ramallah. Their funerals are expected to take place later today.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded from New York, where he had just delivered a withering speech to the UN General Assembly, saying: "It’s been proven that unruly Palestinian incitement leads to acts of terror and of murder as we saw this evening."

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas issued a statement online supporting the attack.

"We praise the heroic operation that fighters in the West Bank carried out and we consider it a true response to the occupier’s crime," it said.

The deadly shooting follows weeks of growing tension in Jerusalem and the West Bank, focused on access to the holy site known as the Haram Al Sharif, or 'Noble Sanctuary' to Muslims, and the Temple Mount to Jews.

The compound in Jerusalem’s Old City houses the Dome of the Rock, and the Al Aqsa Mosque - the site where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, but is also revered by Jews as the spot where their first and second temples once stood.

Palestinians accuse the Israeli government of attempting to change the 'status quo' at the site, by allowing visits by radical Jewish groups who campaign for the right to pray there and call for the construction of a new Jewish temple at the site.

In a speech to the UN earlier this week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was using "brutal force" around the Al Aqsa mosque and warned it could "turn the conflict from a political to a religious one".

Mr Abbas also said he no longer felt bound by the terms of Oslo Accords, claiming Israel had "continually violated" the two-decade old agreements by failing to cease settlement activity in the Occupied West Bank.

The Israeli government has consistently said it is committed to the 'status quo', which leaves the administration of the compound in the hands of the Jordanian-appointed religious authority known as the Waqf, and accuses the Palestinian leadership of inciting violence.

Speaking at the UN, Prime Minister Netanyahu said he was willing to re-enter peace negotiations with the Palestinians "immediately", but claimed President Abbas had demonstrated he was not interested.