NUR SHAMS REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Israeli troops carried out an airstrike in the northern West Bank on Sunday, killing one Palestinian militant and wounding five other people, Palestinian health officials said.
The strike took place in Nur Shams, an urban refugee camp that has been a frequent target of the Israeli army and is known as a stronghold of Palestinian militants. The Palestinian state news agency Wafa said an Israeli drone fired three missiles, hitting a house.
Islamic Jihad identified the dead man as Saeed al-Jaber, one of its local commanders. Wafa said he had escaped a previous drone attack on June 20. There were no details about the identities of the injured. Health officials said two were in critical condition.
The Israeli military confirmed an attack on the house and said militants inside, including al-Jaber, were responsible for recent attacks on Israeli targets.
The occupied West Bank has seen an increase in violence since the war in gaza broke out in October. The Palestinian Health Ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war. Most have been killed during Israeli raids and violent protests. Among the dead there are also passers-by and Palestinians killed in attacks by Jewish settlers.
Israel launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. More than 37,800 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, according to the ministry. of Gaza Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its balance sheet.
Israeli forces have been fighting Palestinian militants in the eastern part of Gaza City, Shijaiyah, in recent days. Israel returned to the neighborhood months after saying it had completed its operations in the area.
Hamas has repeatedly regrouped in hard-hit areas after Israeli troops withdrew, raising questions about Israel’s commitment to destroying the militant group’s military capabilities.
The latest operation has caused thousands of residents to flee. The military said on Sunday it had killed dozens of militants in “hand-to-hand combat” and airstrikes, and seized weapons from a cache it said Hamas had kept at a United Nations-supported school.
Palestinians also continued to flee the area of Rafah and its surroundings, the southern Gaza city where Israel says it is in the final stages of an offensive. More than 1.3 million Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israel’s incursion into the city in early May.
But with few safe places to go, tens of thousands of people have been left behind, mostly in outlying areas once considered safe. Large groups of people fled with tents, mattresses and clothing piled into trucks or donkey carts. Many walked on foot in search of shelter. Even places that were considered safe suffer from overcrowding and poor health conditions.
For many Palestinians in the war-torn enclave, it was not their first displacement. They say the experience is not easier.
“This is the fourth time we’ve gone from one place to another where they (the Israeli army) tell us it’s a safe area but it turns out it’s not,” Mohammad Hajjaj told The Associated Press. He was first displaced from Shijaiyah in the first few weeks. from the war.
Hajjaj said that two days ago, he and his family woke up to the sound of Israeli tank gunfire nearby before leaving. “We slept on the streets,” he said.
The fleeing Palestinians found space on a plot of land in nearby Khan Younis and began setting up their tents along with dozens of others on the sandy terrain.
“We came to Khan Younis from Muwasi,” said Mervette Shamlakh, referring to the Israeli-designated coastal “humanitarian zone” that has few basic services. “It’s the same thing again and we had to flee… we have no idea where we are. “It’s supposed to go.”
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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.
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