TEHRAN- Palestinians retaliate a day after Israel's largest raid in the occupied West Bank in two decades. 

• Palestinians have conducted a retaliatory operation in the Israeli settlement of Eli, leaving four settlers dead and another four injured.  

• Hamas confirms that two of its members carried out the mission. The resistance says it's "a natural response" to escalating Israeli crimes. 

• The retaliation comes a day after Israel used helicopters to fire on Palestinians in a large-scale raid on the Jenin refugee camp that killed six Palestinians and injured over 90 others.

• The raid also left seven Israeli troops injured, according to the Israeli military. 

• The Palestinian resistance says the number of Israeli military casualties is higher and includes fatalities. 

• Israeli Prime Minister chairs an emergency meeting amid reports of a rift among his cabinet and security chiefs. 

Two Palestinians have opened fire on Israeli settlers at a gas station on Highway 60 near the settlement of Eli, leaving four Israeli settlers dead. 

Four other settlers have sustained injuries, including one left in a serious condition, and three in moderate to minor condition.

The illegal Eli settlement is located between the cities of Nablus and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

According to reports, the two Palestinians shot the settlement guard, then advanced to a nearby gas station and targeted two settlers, before one of them entered a restaurant at the gas station and shot a number of settlers.

The two Palestinian youths were later killed by the Israeli occupation forces. They have been identified as Muhannad Shehadeh, aged 26, and Khaled Sabah, 24, from the town of Orif on the outskirts of Nablus. 

Israeli forces killed Shehadeh after an exchange of fire. Sabah was killed near Nablus following heavy air surveillance after he succeeded in withdrawing from the site of the operation.

Israel sent in a number of battalions to the West Bank, beefing up its occupation near Nablus and the scene of the operation en masse. The regime closed Highway 60 in both directions and set up military checkpoints at the entrances to Nablus.   

The Home Front Command of the occupation army, in a statement, addressed the settlers of the Eli settlement, saying: “Do not leave your homes until you receive notification. Movement in the area is prohibited and entry into it is prohibited until further notice.”

Following the retaliatory operation, Prime Minister Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting to assess the security situation. A statement issued by his office stated that he had received field reports on the details of the operation, which Israeli media described as “difficult.”

Israeli minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant also announced that he had held an emergency session with the participation of the Chief of Staff of Israeli army Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and other senior security officials before the consultations with Netanyahu.  

Israeli cabinet minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who lives on an illegal settlement himself, arrived at the site of the operation and demanded the launch of a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank, including assassinations from the air, and called on settlers to take up arms.

By nightfall, Palestinians in the nearby village of Huwara and a local official said Israeli settlers went on the rampage, setting fire to cars and torching fields in the area, in scenes reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan.

Ben Gvir also said, "I call on the prime minister and Galant that the time has come to carry out a military operation in the West Bank, to return to liquidations, and to destroy buildings."

He added, “They have turned us into sitting ducks."

The Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich also said in a statement carried by the Hebrew Channel 7 that he believes “a major military operation is closer than ever.”

He said, “The security situation is intolerable... there are several considerations that I cannot address in public, so as not to give our enemies free information about our intentions.”  

Smotrich added, “We cannot allow the existence of outposts that strike our soldiers and settlers. We will not allow Jenin and Nablus to turn into southern Lebanon again.”

His remarks come as the international community this week, including the UN chief, the UN Middle East coordinator and the EU have all strongly condemned the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts, as well as the regime's plans to ease rules for expanding settlements. 

"Threats do not frighten us" 

Ismail Haniyeh, chief of the Hamas political bureau, told occupiers that "this is the first rain, and what awaits you is worse." He added, "It will be victory or martyrdom". 

The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement said the Palestinian martyrs were two of its members. 

In a statement, it also warned the occupation that "this would be the beginning of a series of resistance operations," adding "our people have the right to defend themselves by all means possible."

It concluded, “The occupation must realize that its ongoing crimes against our people and sanctities ... will make this process just the beginning of a series of acts of resistance that will disturb their fragile state and turn the dreams of their soldiers and settlers into a nightmare.”

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem stressed that “this great uprising will not stop unless the goals of our people are achieved with freedom and independence.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman Tareq Selmi stressed "threats do not frighten the Palestinians" and that "the resistance is ready to face any escalation".

Palestinian resistance factions, in separate statements, roundly praised the commando operation at the Eli settlement as a "natural response" to what happened in Jenin on Monday. 

Despite committing terror in Jenin on Monday, the occupation forces fell in an elaborate ambush while fleeing, during which explosive devices were planted and shots were fired, wounding seven Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli media.

The Jenin Brigade revealed, in a statement, that the occupation's admission of seven injured soldiers with some seriously wounded "is escaping from recognizing the reality of the multiple and confirmed casualties that occurred".

The Jenin Brigade confirmed its full responsibility for the "explosive device bombing of Israeli personnel carriers," which it said was locally manufactured. 

The resistance group said the bombing of the APC in the Jenin camp led to its "damage, and the killing and wounding of everyone who was inside it, directly," adding that the fighters with the Jenin Brigade and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade targeted, in a joint operation, a military "jeep" that tried to tow the damaged APC.

The resistance has also challenged the Israeli regime to reveal the true number of wounded troops and those who were killed in Jenin to its settlers. 

Hamas leader Osama Hamdan says, "The enemy was surprised that the resistance had accurate information about its withdrawal plan after carrying out its operation."

Israeli media reported that Ben-Gvir was not summoned to participate in the security consultations held by the occupation cabinet on Tuesday. A reporter for Israel's Channel 12 says Ben-Gvir was severely criticized in the government. 

Israeli media also reported a dispute within the security establishment and at the same political level in the regime over the expansion of military operations in the northern West Bank.

Israeli security officials are reported to have said, "There are no magic solutions."