Children among five killed as Israel bombs West Bank refugee camp
AT least five people, including two children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike on an urban refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities have said.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed the attack on the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarm, claiming it had been the command room of a “terror cell”.
In a separate incident, the Palestinian health minister said one person was shot dead and another three injured in attacks by Israeli settlers – who illegally occupy the Palestinian territory – near Bethlehem.
There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank, which the majority of the world regards as being illegally occupied by Israel, since the Hamas attacks of October 7.
The United Nations last week said that since October 7, Israeli airstrikes had killed 128 Palestinians, including 26 children, in the West Bank.
Overall, Israeli forces had killed 607 Palestinians in the region, including East Jerusalem, with 11 of those killed by Israeli settlers.
The UN said that 15 Israelis, including nine members of the IDF and five settlers had been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that an Israeli drone was responsible for the attack on a house in the Nur Shams camp on Monday night, with four explosions heard.
Palestinian authorities named the five people killed as Adnan Jaber, 15, Mohammed Elayyan, 16, Mohannad Qarawi, 19, Jibril Jibril, 20, and Mohammed Yusif, 49.
Jibril was said to be a Hamas member released from an Israeli prison as part of an exchange freeing Israeli hostages held in Gaza in November.
The IDF has targeted the West Bank refugee camp several times in recent months and the Palestinian Red Cross said 14 people were killed during a two-day Israeli raid in April.
Elsewhere, the Palestinian health ministry said Khalil Salem Khalawi, 40, was shot dead during an attack by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Wadi Rahhal, south of Bethlehem, where three others were wounded.
Hamdi Ziada, the head of the village council, told the Wafa news agency that shots were fired as settlers attacked homes near a local school.
He claimed that Israeli soldiers had invaded the village to protect settlers, and fired tear gas at residents.
Khalawi was an Israeli Arab and had been killed by the IDF after they arrived to respond to reports that stones had been thrown at an Israeli vehicle, according to Israel’s Ynet news website. The IDF has said it is investigating the reports, according to the BBC.
Israel has built around 160 settlements since it began the illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land which the Palestinians want as part of a future state – in the 1967 war.
In July, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem was “unlawful” and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime to withdraw.