AT least five people, including two children, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on an urban refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities have said.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have confirmed the attack on the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarm, claiming it had been the command room of a “terror cell”.
In a separate incident, the Palestinian health minister said one person was shot dead and another three injured in attacks by Israeli settlers – who illegally occupy the Palestinian territory – near Bethlehem.
There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank, which the vast majority of the world regards as being illegally occupied by Israel – since the Hamas attacks of October 7.
The UN last week said that since October 7, Israeli airstrikes had killed 128 Palestinians, including 26 children, in the West Bank.
Overall, Israeli forces had billed 607 Palestinians had been killed in the region, including East Jerusalem, including 11 killed by Israeli settlers.
The UN said that 15 Israelis, including nine members of the IDF and five settlers had been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that an Israeli drone was responsible for the attack on a house in the Nur Shams camp on Monday night and that four explosions were heard.
Palestinian authorities have named the five people killed as 15-year old Adnan Jaber, Mohammed Elayyan, 16, Mohannad Qarawi, 19, Jibril Jibril, 20, and Mohammed Yusif, 49.
The Palestinian outlet said that Jibril was a Hamas member who had been released from an Israeli prison has part of a hostage swap in November.
The IDF has targeted the West Bank refugee camp several times in recent months and the Palestinian Red Cross said 14 people were killed during a two-day Israeli raid in April.
Elsewhere, the Palestinian health ministry said 40-year-old Khalil Salem Khalawi was shot dead during an attack by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Wadi Rahhal, south of Bethlehem, where three others were wounded.
The head of the village council Hamdi Ziada told the Wafa news agency that shots were fired as settlers attacked homes near a local school and he claimed that Israeli soldiers had invaded the village to protect settlers and fired tear gas at residents.
Khwali, the man killed in the raid, was an Israeli Arab and had been killed by the IDF after they arrived to respond to reports that stones had been thrown at an Israeli vehicle, according to Israel’s Ynet news website.
The IDF has said it is investigating the reports, according to the BBC.
It comes as Israeli airstrikes also killed 18 people, including eight children in Gaza on Monday.
Israel has built around 160 settlements since it began the illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
In July, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem was “unlawful” as it urged Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime to withdraw.
