3 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrike in West Bank
Jerusalem, Nov 17 (EFE).- At least three Palestinians were killed on Friday by an Israeli air strike during a military operation in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency reported.
The WAFA agency said the Israeli forces attacked a gathering of civilians in the Jenin refugee camp, leaving three dead and nine wounded.
It added that Israeli troops also surrounded a medical center, questioned medical personnel, examined ambulances and demanded their evacuation.
The Israeli army, on its part, announced that it carried out an aerial attack on armed militants, who fired at them, as a part of counter-terrorism operations in Jenin.
It further said that in a separate operation, its troops neutralized several alleged terrorists who opened fire at them and threw explosives.
An Israeli military spokesperson stressed that in total, they had eliminated at least five “terrorists,” arrested eight suspects and seized six weapons.
The Israeli army added that during the operation, militants fled in vehicles and ambulances to the Ibn Sina hospital area to hide, whom they pursued, and even managed to stop a vehicle at the entrance of the hospital.
When asked by EFE for further information about the alleged attack on the medical center, the spokesperson refused to comment further.
Israeli military interventions in the West Bank have occurred almost daily since last year and have intensified even more since the beginning of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, following the Hamas attack on Israeli soil.
Since then, some 200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,700 wounded in the West Bank in violent clashes with Israeli security forces or Jewish settlers in the area.
Israel has detained more than 1,750 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, more than 1,000 of whom are allegedly linked to Hamas.
The occupied West Bank is experiencing its biggest spiral of violence in two decades.
So far this year, more than 400 Palestinians have died,including militants and civilians, among them 85 minors.
On the other hand, the area has witnessed the proliferation of new Palestinian armed groups, whose attacks have caused some 37 deaths on the Israeli side, mostly settlers, including five minors. EFE
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