Israeli troops carried out a raid in Tulkarem on Monday, killing at least two Palestinians affiliated with Hamas [Getty/file photo]
An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian fighters and injured three others in the city of Tulkarem on Monday, Hamas said, as Israeli forces continue to intensify military operations in the occupied West Bank.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs the Gaza Strip, said the two killed on Monday were members of its armed wing. Witnesses in the city said a raid was underway.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck “a militant who served as Hamas’ leader” in Tulkarem, and that it killed an additional fighter.
The attack on the Nur Shams refugee camp was described by the military as a “direct continuation of intensive counterterrorism activities” as it carries out intense military raids across the occupied territories, including in Jenin, Nablus and Hebron amid the Gaza ceasefire.
The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that two people had been killed, without identifying them.
In Jenin, further north, a major operation with hundreds of Israeli troops backed by armoured vehicles, drones and helicopters, looked set to go into a second week, with smoke rising above the refugee camp adjacent to the city.
Armoured bulldozers and diggers have destroyed buildings and roads in the camp, a crowded township built for descendants of Palestinians who fled or were forced out from their homes in the 1948 war to pave the way for the creation of the state of Israel, and thousands of people have left their homes.
At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin and surrounding areas since the start of the operation a week ago.
Late on Saturday, Israeli forces also shot a two-year old girl during a raid on the village of Ash-Shuhada, just to the south of Jenin, Palestinian officials said.
“They started to shoot at us through the windows without any warning,” said Ghada Asous, grandmother of two year-old Laila Muhammad Al-Khatib. “All of a sudden, the special forces raided us and were shooting through the windows.”
Israel’s violence in the West Bank has killed at least 870 Palestinians since the start of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip on 7 October, 2023, and has gone on to detain more than 11,000 Palestinians since.
