Over 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied West Bank since war erupted between Israel and Hamas, on October 7, the Health ministry said Wednesday.
Many of the Palestinian deaths happened in raids by Israeli troops. Still, there has also been a rise in violence between Palestinians and Israeli settlers, which has seen civilians as well as fighters killed on both sides.
Since October 7, killings have surged in the West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem, causing the death of 101 Palestinians, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry. Over the same period, the Israeli military reported one security force member killed while taking part in a raid.
In the latest violence, three Palestinians were killed in Jenin and one in Qalqilya, both in the northern West Bank. One Palestinian was also killed in Qalandia, just north of Jerusalem. The health ministry said they were killed by Israeli “bullets and missiles.”
The Israeli military said it launched a drone strike on “terrorists” in the densely populated Jenin refugee camp. “Armed terrorists fired and hurled explosive devices at Israeli security forces” in the camp, an army statement said. Soldiers also shot at “armed terrorists” in the nearby town of Bruqin, where forces also detained two people, according to the statement. The military did not immediately comment on the deaths in Qalqilya and Qalandia when contacted by AFP.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and withdrew from Gaza in 2005, subsequently imposing a crippling blockade on the coastal territory.
The latest and deadliest Gaza war broke out when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and taking 222 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. The Health ministry in Gaza says that 5,791 people have been killed, mostly civilians, in Israeli retaliatory strikes.
Gabriela De La Cruz, with AFP
