JENIN, Palestinian Territories – An Israeli military raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Friday left five people dead, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said.
At least 12 Palestinians have now been killed in Israeli operations this week in the West Bank, where tensions have intensified since the start of the Gaza war in October.
Troops surrounded a building “where terrorists have barricaded themselves” and a gun battle started, an Israeli military statement said of the latest clash in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
The Wafa official Palestinian news agency said military vehicles surrounded a house in a Jenin refugee camp and loud speaker demands were made for an occupant to surrender.
Shoulder-fired missiles were then used and a drone attacked the house, it added.
“During the exchanges of fire, an IDF (Israeli military) aircraft struck several armed terrorists in the area,” the Israeli statement said.
The West Bank has suffered from mounting violence since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 7.
Seven Palestinians were killed in military operations in the occupied territory this week, before the latest deadly operation.
A woman and child died in an Israeli raid in a refugee camp near Tulkarem on Monday, four men in a drone attack on the same Nur Shams camp on Tuesday and one man in Jenin on Wednesday, according to the health ministry.
Fourteen people died in one two-day Israeli operation in Nur Shams in April, according to a Palestinian Red Crescent toll.
According to Palestinian figures, at least 565 Palestinians have died in the West Bank in military raids and in violence with Israeli settlers since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
At least 16 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in the territory over the same period, according to an AFP tally from official Israeli figures. AFP
