RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli forces killed five Palestinians across the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as violence surges across the territory during the ongoing war in Gaza.
More than 110 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7.
The Palestinian health ministry said five people aged 29 to 35 were shot dead by Israeli forces at dawn, two of them in Nablus’s Askar refugee camp.
The other incidents took place in Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, Bethlehem’s Dheisheh refugee camp and in Tamun north of Nablus. The ministry did not provide further details.
The Israeli military said that during activity to demolish the home of a militant in Askar, “explosive devices were hurled at Israeli security forces and exchanges of fire took place with terrorists.”
Israel routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians it accuses of deadly attacks, arguing that such measures act as a deterrent. Campaigners say the policy amounts to collective punishment, as it can render non-combatants homeless.
During arrests of militants in Jenin and nearby, “suspects hurled explosive devices at the forces and exchanges of fire took place with terrorists,” the army said.
And, while the army was carrying out “counterterrorism activity in the town of Beit Rima, terrorists hurled Molotov cocktails and explosive devices at the forces, who responded with live fire,” according to an army statement.
Israel occupied the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its forces regularly carry out raids on Palestinian militants there.
Since October 7, “over 1,030 wanted suspects have been apprehended” in the West Bank, “700 of whom are affiliated with the Hamas terrorist organization,” the army said, as its forces fight the militant group in the Gaza Strip.
In recent months there has also been a rise in violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
On Saturday, a 40-year-old Palestinian who was harvesting his olives was killed by a settler in the village of Sawiya near Nablus, the health ministry said.
Settlers said he was killed as they acted in self-defense after a clash erupted between Palestinians and inhabitants of an Israeli settlement nearby.
One member of the Israeli security forces was killed on October 19 in unrest in Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
