Three Israeli police officers were killed on Sunday in a shooting attack which Hamas said its fighters carried out near the Palestinian city of Tarqumiyah in the southern West Bank.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s medical emergency service, said on Sunday that two men and a woman had been killed in a “very severe attack” as explosions and gunfire were heard across the West Bank.

“We saw a vehicle with bullet marks on a mound beside the road,” the emergency service said in a statement, quoting two of its paramedics at the scene.

Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack, which the terror group described as a “natural response” to the “war of genocide in the Gaza strip and Zionist crimes in the West Bank”.

The shooting comes as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue a widespread operation across the northern West Bank, which was launched on Wednesday.

At least 22 Palestinians have been killed in a series of counter-terror raids across four West Bank cities, including 14 fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups.

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