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Five Israelis, who according to media reports were all members of the same family, have been killed in an overnight attack on a West Bank settlement.

Israeli army officials said on Saturday that a Palestinian got into the Itamar settlement near Nablus in the north of the West Bank and killed five people, but did not elaborate on who the victims were.

Israeli reports suggested that the victims, three children and their parents, had all been stabbed to death in their beds.
Three other children managed to escape and raise the alarm, according to the Israeli news site Ynet.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said he was "deeply shocked" by the incident and ordered a large military operation in the West Bank, said Al Jazeera's correspondent in Ramallah.

He also called on the Palestinian Authority to help find the attackers.

Our correspondent said 20 people have been arrested so far in connection with the attack and that detentions are going on. 

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a mostly defunct Palestinian group, took responsibility for the attack. But it was not clear if it really did it, as the group frequently takes credit for attacks it did not mastermind in the hope of raising its profile.