IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot (right) being briefed at the scene of Tuesday’s drive-by shooting terror attack in the West Bank. Photo: IDF via Twitter.

JNS.org – The IDF significantly increased its forces and bolstered its intelligence operations in the West Bank on Wednesday after an Israeli father of six was killed in a drive-by shooting terror attack near Nablus the previous day.

The victim of the attack, 35-year-old Raziel Shevach, was pronounced dead at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba in central Israel shortly after arriving there Tuesday. On Tuesday night, the IDF conducted searches in the area of Nablus and closed off several Palestinian villages amid efforts to track down the terrorists behind the attack.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot visited the scene of the terror attack Wednesday morning, and was briefed on the details of the shooting as well as the IDF’s increased operations in the area.

“The main task at the moment is to locate the [terror] cell and to prevent it from carrying out further attacks,” Eisenkot said.

The Gaza-ruling Palestinian terror group Hamas praised the attack Tuesday night, saying in a statement, “We bless the heroic Nablus operation which comes as a result of the Zionist occupation’s violations and crimes at the expense of our people in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

In response to the terror attack, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman tweeted Wednesday that the reason why there is no peace between Israelis and Palestinians is the Palestinian Authority’s official support for terrorism.

Watch a video of Eizenkot’s visit to the scene of Tuesday’s attack below:

This morning, the Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot visited the scene of yesterday’s shooting attack, where Rabbi Raziel Shevach was murdered, and was briefed by the GOC of the Central Command and additional commanders pic.twitter.com/iqn8oBX509

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) January 10, 2018