JERUSALEM — Israel's military deployed hundreds of troops in the West Bank on Friday, a day after a drive-by shooting by suspected Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish settler couple driving home with their children.
The attack took place late Thursday when gunmen opened fire at a vehicle travelling near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik. The shots killed Eitam and Naama Henkin, residents of the Jewish West Bank settlement of Neria. Their four young children, including a four-month old infant, were unharmed.
On Friday, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon visited the site, pledging to catch the perpetrators and, like other Israeli politicians, blaming Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for inciting such violence.
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Thousands attended the parents' funeral on Friday in Jerusalem, including Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
''We cannot stand silently when the hands of murderers steal a loving mother and father away from their children,'' Rivlin said in a eulogy. ''We are facing a brutal terrorist onslaught.''
The attack came after a series of Palestinian rock and firebomb attacks that has prompted Israel to vow to quash such threats.
It also followed a hard-line speech at the UN by Abbas, the last of several attacks that Israeli leaders have condemned as incitement. Abbas has said that Israelis desecrate a Jerusalem holy site with their ''dirty feet'' and charged that Israel was committed to the ''ethnic cleansing'' of his people.
Settler leaders said they planned to stage a protest in front of the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demand tougher action to defend the settlers from militants.