Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the shooting attack on Thursday at the settlement of Kedumim, near Qalqilya, which saw the killing of an Israeli soldier. 

The Al-Qassam Brigades issued a statement from the Gaza Strip mourning the martyr who carried out the operation, Ahmed Yassin Hilal Ghaidan, from the village of Qibya, west of Ramallah. He was shot dead by Israeli forces after carrying out the attack.

"This heroic operation comes as a quick response to the occupation's aggression against our people in Jenin refugee camp, and in response to the desecration of our sanctities and the ripping of the Holy Koran in the town of Urif," the Al-Qassam Brigades.

The attack, the statement said was intended to "tell the criminal Zionist minister Smotrich that Al-Qassam almost knocked on your door...Whoever sows murder and crime against our people will only reap death, terror and defeat," the statement said.

The far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also hold a portfolio in a defense minister overseeing civil policy in the West Bank, lives in the northern West Bank settlement.