ISRAEL sent hundreds more troops to the occupied West Bank today, a day after settlers rampaged through a Palestinian town and a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis. 

The settlers torched homes and vehicles in the worst such violence in decades.

The responses to the rampage laid bare some rifts in Israel’s new right-wing government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealing for calm while a member of his ultra-right wing ruling coalition praised the settlers’ attacks.

Washington has urged a de-escalation of tensions while avoiding pushing for a resolution of the core disputes between Israel and the Palestinians. 

It was left to Jordan to bring the two sides together to try to ease tensions ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.

Sunday’s events kicked off when a Palestinian gunman shot and killed brothers Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, from the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha, in the Palestinian town of Hawara in the northern occupied West Bank. The gunman has yet to be arrested.

Following the shooting, groups of settlers rampaged along the main thoroughfare in Hawara. In one video, a crowd of settlers prayed as they stared at a building in flames.

Labour Party leader Merav Michaeli condemned the rampage as “a pogrom by armed militias” of West Bank settlers.

Late Sunday, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire, two Palestinians were shot and wounded and another was beaten with an iron bar, health officials said. 

Some 95 Palestinians were being treated for tear gas inhalation, according to medics.

This morning, the Hawara thoroughfare was lined with rows of burned-out cars and smoke-blackened buildings. Palestinian media said that some 30 homes and cars were torched.

While Mr Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog urged settlers not to engage in vigilante actions, other members of the ruling coalition fanned the flames.

Tzvika Foghel, a lawmaker from the ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party, said that the rampage would help deter Palestinian attacks. “I see the result in a very good light,” he told Army Radio.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “We condemn today’s violence in the West Bank, including the terrorist attack that killed two Israelis and settler violence, which resulted in the killing of one Palestinian, injuries to over 100 others and the extensive destruction of property.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he held the Israeli government responsible for what he called “the terrorist acts carried out by settlers under the protection of the occupation forces tonight.”