Israel strikes kill seven Palestinians in West Bank

Tulkarem – Israeli strikes killed seven people near two refugee camps in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, emergency services and the army said, as violence in the territory sees no let-up.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said an Israeli strike killed four people inside Tulkarem camp early in the morning.

“Palestine Red Crescent teams transport four martyrs from inside Tulkarem camp due to the occupation’s bombardment,” the group said in a statement.

An official at the camp confirmed the strike and the death toll.

“The camp is besieged by aircraft and heavy numbers of the Israeli army, and tanks,” Faisal Salama told AFP.

The army did not immediately comment on the strike.

At midday (1000 GMT), loud explosions were heard in the camp as thick smoke billowed into the sky amid sporadic gunfire, an AFP correspondent reported.

In a separate strike near Balata refugee camp, east of the city of Nablus, Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that three men were killed.

The army said Ahmed Abdullah Abu Shalal, a Palestinian militant, had been killed, averting a “terrorist attack” he was planning.

Abu Shalal had been responsible for a “number of terrorist attacks” over the past year, including one in annexed east Jerusalem, the army said.

It said he was killed following intelligence “of his cell’s intentions of carrying out an imminent terrorist attack”.

Camp resident Sajed Hazeem said he was woken at dawn by a loud explosion.

Minutes after the blast an ambulance arrived at the scene but its access to the car was blocked by Israeli troops who arrived at the same time, Hazeem said.

“The army pulled out the bodies and after about half an hour it withdrew,” Hazeen told AFP.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said the body of an “unidentified martyr killed by the occupation (Israel) in a bombing of a vehicle” had been received by a hospital in Nablus.

An AFP correspondent saw a pile of debris and the mangled remains of a car that was hit.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7, the West Bank has experienced a level of violence not seen since the second Palestinian uprising or intifada between 2000 and 2005.

Israeli army raids and attacks by settlers have killed at least 353 people in the territory, according to an AFP tally based on sources from both sides.

Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.