Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in an overnight raid in a village near the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli military said on Saturday.
Hamas confirmed that four of the men killed during the raid in Deir al-Ghusun village were from its al-Qassam armed wing. The Palestinian health ministry said their bodies had been taken by the Israeli military.
There was no information about the fifth man, whose body was too disfigured for immediate identification, the ministry said.
The Israeli military said an officer from a special police unit was wounded in the operation and hospitalised. It said its forces retaliated using live ammunition and shoulder-fired missiles after they were fired on.
Saturday’s operation near the flashpoint city of Tulkarm was the latest in a series of clashes in the occupied West Bank between Israeli forces and Palestinians that has been escalating for more than two years but which has picked up in intensity since the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October.
Since 7 October, 492 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or Jewish settlers in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian health ministry records. Many have been armed fighters but stone-throwing youths and uninvolved civilians have also been killed.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s seven-month-old assault on the Gaza Strip, say health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and abducting 252 others, of whom 132 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said: “Israeli ‘Yamam’ police, alongside IDF and ISA [Israel Security Agency] forces, engaged in an extensive 12-hour counter-terrorism operation in the Tulkarm area based on intelligence from the ISA and IDF.
“The operation aimed to neutralise a terrorist cell. The team surrounded a building where the cell members were holed up. Upon being fired upon by the terrorists, the security forces retaliated using live ammunition, shoulder-fired missiles, and other weaponry.
“An IDF UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] targeted and hit the building twice, while engineering units worked to dismantle it. The confrontation ended with the elimination of five terrorists, and the seizure of military gear and weapon components. During the operation, a ‘Yamam’ police officer was wounded and subsequently hospitalised for further medical care. His family has been notified.”