An Israeli air strike killed two Palestinians fighters in the city of Tulkarm yesterday, Hamas said, underscoring Israel’s renewed focus on armed groups in the occupied West Bank since the start of the ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas said the two killed were members of its armed wing. Witnesses in the city said a raid was underway.
The Israeli military said it struck a fighter who served as Hamas’ leader in Tulkarm, which it said was behind numerous attacks against Israelis, and that it killed an additional fighter.
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, a long-time centre of armed groups.
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 from their homes in the 1948 war around 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, including four claimed as fighters by Hamas and the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad.
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.
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