An air strike, gunfire and explosives across the West Bank killed eight Palestinians and two Israelis yesterday, officials on both sides said as violence surges in the occupied territory.
Seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in the area of Jenin refugee camp, a fighters’ stronghold in the northern West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israeli police said an officer was killed when her “vehicle...was hit by an explosive device” during a raid on the camp, adding that three other officers were wounded.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire in Abwein village north of Ramallah, said the health ministry. There was no immediate comment from the military.
Elsewhere in the Ramallah area, an Israeli civilian was shot dead, according to the army, which said forces were searching for the assailant. The Israel man was “killed adjacent to the British police junction” north of Ramallah, it said in a statement.
Violence in the West Bank has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades since October first week, when storming of Israel by Palestinian group Hamas sparked all-out war, still raging in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces carry out regular raids in the occupied territory including Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp, often triggering gun battles between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported early yesterday a major deployment of Israeli forces in Jenin.
It said an “Israeli drone strike” killed six people including four brothers. A seventh person later died from wounds.
The Israeli army, which until several months ago had rarely struck the West Bank from the air, said “six fighters were killed when an aircraft struck a fighter who hurled explosive devices” at troops during an operation in Jenin refugee camp.
Suleiman Moussa, a resident of Jenin, said the air strike followed sounds of gunfire. “We came here and saw people thrown to the ground...(and) some body parts,” Moussa told AFP.
“It was an unbelievable scene and we didn’t know what to do.” AFP footage from the site of the strike near the camp showed residents inspecting patches of blood and splintered glass on a pavement. Mourners gathered later yesterday for the funeral of the four brothers.
The Israeli army says its frequent raids target “fighters”, but the Palestinian health ministry says many civilians are among the dead.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October first week, Israeli forces and settler attacks have killed at least 329 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the health ministry.
During 2023, the ministry counted more than 520 Palestinian deaths in across the West Bank in violence related to the conflict. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
About 3mn Palestinians live in the territory along with 490,000 Israelis, who live in settlements deemed illegal under international law.
A woman wearing the pink hijab mourns, after four of her children were killed in what Palestinian authorities said was an Israeli air strike, at a morgue in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, yesterday.
