An Israeli-American has been shot dead in the occupied West Bank as revenge unrest escalates.
The man was killed in a vehicular attack on a highway near the city of Jericho.
The shooting came after Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the West Bank on Sunday night, burning dozens of cars and houses.
The attack came after two settlers from a nearby village were shot dead by a Palestinian on Sunday.
An Israeli-American man killed near Jericho was taken by paramedics to a Jerusalem hospital, but was later pronounced dead.
US Ambassador Tom Nides tweeted: “Sadly, I can confirm that an American citizen was killed tonight in a terrorist attack in the West Bank. My prayers go out to his family.”
Israeli Defense Forces say the attackers fired three times at Israeli vehicles and later set their vehicles on fire.
The IDF tweeted that there was an exchange of fire with police before the attackers fled.
No Palestinian group immediately claimed responsibility.
The Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip but is less prominent in the West Bank, said the attack was a natural response to Israeli attacks.
“Crime committed by squatters and herds of settlers will not be countered by stabbings, shootings and car crashes,” a spokesman said in a statement.
The violence came as Israeli and Palestinian officials pledged to de-escalate tensions at a summit in Jordan.
Videos posted hours after the summit ended on Sunday showed a large crowd of Israeli settlers entering the village of Hawara, about 4 miles (6 km) south of Nablus, setting fires and throwing stones.
Samh Iqtash, 37, died of a gunshot wound to the stomach during an attack by settlers in Zatara on Sunday night, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
This part of the West Bank falls under full Israeli control and Palestinians have criticized Israeli security forces for failing to provide protection.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held the Israeli government fully responsible for “terrorist acts carried out by Israeli settlers under the protection of Israeli occupation forces”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for calm and urged settlers to allow the Israeli military and security forces to focus on finding the gunman who killed two Israelis.
“I ask that when the blood is boiling and the soul is hot, don’t take the law into your own hands,” he said in a video statement.
The settlers had called for a march to Hawara to “revenge” the deadly attack on Hillel and Yagal Yanif, who live in Har Barcha settlement, 1.2 miles south of Nablus.
The two brothers were driving from Hawara when a Palestinian man rammed their car and then shot both of them several times.
No Palestinian militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the gunman was reportedly wearing a shirt bearing the logo of the Lions’ base in Nablus.
Members of the group were the target of an Israeli attack in Nablus last Wednesday that killed 11 Palestinians, including several civilians – the deadliest such operation in the West Bank since 2005.
Israeli forces are conducting search, arrest and intelligence-gathering raids in Nablus and the nearby city of Jenin, which they say are trying to prevent a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
Since the beginning of this year, more than 60 Palestinians – militants and civilians – have been killed by Israeli forces. On the Israeli side, 14 people have been killed in the attacks – all civilians, except for one paramilitary police officer.
More than 600,000 Jews live in 140 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.
The majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
