An Israeli air strike has killed two Hamas fighters in the city of Tulkarem, the Palestinian group said, underscoring Israel’s renewed focus on the occupied West Bank since the start of the ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said that the two men killed on Monday were members of its armed wing.
The Israeli military said that it targeted a man who served as Hamas’s leader in Tulkarem, who it said was behind numerous attacks on Israelis, in addition to another Hamas member.
Meanwhile, witnesses in Tulkarem told the Reuters news agency that an Israeli raid was under way in the city.
That operation comes as Israeli raids on the nearby Jenin area continued into a seventh day.
Backed by armoured vehicles and drones, Israeli forces launched a series of attacks on Jenin – a crowded township to the north of Tulkarem – on January 21 as part of Israel’s “Iron Wall” campaign.
Since the start of the operation, at least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin and the surrounding areas, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Mohammad Jarrar, the mayor of Jenin, said on Sunday that some 15,000 people have been forced to flee the camp due to Israeli attacks.
He added that according to initial estimates, the Israeli army has completely demolished between 30 and 40 homes in Jenin, and hundreds of others have been partially damaged.
“The Israeli army is bulldozing and destroying streets and infrastructure, creating pathways for its vehicles through the rubble of demolished Palestinian homes,” Jarrar said.
Last week, the Israeli military said in a statement that it carried out aerial attacks on “terror infrastructure sites” in Jenin, adding that “numerous explosives planted on the routes” were “dismantled”.
Late on Saturday, Israeli forces 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,” Reuters quoted Ghada Asous, grandmother of Laila Muhammad al-Khatib, the infant girl, as saying.
“All of a sudden, the special forces raided us and were shooting through the windows.”
The Israeli military said troops on a “counterterrorism” operation had fired at a structure where suspected militants had barricaded themselves. It was reviewing reports that uninvolved civilians were injured, it said in a statement.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed at least 838 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.
