Israeli forces killed at least five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem on Sunday morning, taking the toll in Israeli raids, including drone strikes, in the occupied territories to seven in the last 24 hours.
Two of the victims were killed in drone strikes while several others were injured in the large-scale military offensive in Tulkarem, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, quoting the local media and medical sources.
Wafa identified the victims as Jihad Aarneh, 25, Mahmoud Samer Jaber, 22, Ghayth Yasser Shahada, 25, Waleed Asaad Zahra, 22, and Asaad Asad Zahra, 33.
At least two Palestinians were killed on Saturday in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s army confirmed its forces used aircraft to target Palestinians in the town, saying it struck and killed fighters who had launched explosives at them from the Nur Shams camp.
Following the air raid, Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching the camp and arrested one paramedic, Wafa reported. The Israeli forces also carried out a large-scale raid with tanks and bulldozers, according to Wafa.
Also on Sunday, a Palestinian died from injuries sustained after an Israeli attack in Jenin several days earlier, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from the Tulkarem refugee camp, said the raid began at 1am on Sunday and lasted nine hours. He said Israeli forces fired projectiles from drones at people in the camp and, according to residents, blocked ambulances from entering to treat the wounded for four hours.
“About 17,000 people are living in this camp and they are facing raids like this pretty much every day,” Stratford said.
“The situation highlights not only the kind of territory that thousands of civilians are facing, but the huge difficulties that medical crews face as these raids continue,” he said.
Israeli military raids and settler attacks have intensified in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war broke out on October 7.
During this time, at least 297 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers, making it the deadliest year on record in 18 years.
The death toll includes at least 65 children, with a further 3,365 injured.
Israeli authorities have also stepped up the arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, with more than 4,500 people detained in the past two months, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, at least 18,787 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
Israel says the Hamas attack on Israel that day killed 1,139 people, most of them civilians.
