Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in separate air strikes in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian press agency Wafa reported, while the Israeli military said it had “eliminated terrorist cells”.
Five people were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Tulkarem area, Wafa reported, while the Israeli military said it struck “five terrorists” on their way to carry out an attack.
According to Wafa, the drone fired two missiles at a vehicle which caught fire, killing five men.
The director of the Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem said in a statement that “five martyrs” had arrived at the facility after “an Israeli drone strike on a Palestinian vehicle close to the village of Zeita”.
The Israeli military quickly sealed off the area, Wafa reported.
In a second air strike, hours later in the Tulkarem area, Wafa reported that four Palestinians were killed.
During the operation there was an encounter between troops and militants, after which Israeli soldiers called in an air strike, killing the four, the military said.
Alongside the Israel-Hamas war that began last October in the Gaza Strip, violence has intensified in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967.
At least 603 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.
Excluding east Jerusalem, some 490,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank alongside some three million Palestinians.
With AFP
