ZEITA, West Bank — Two Israeli airstrikes in the northern West Bank on Saturday killed nine Palestinian militants, according to the Israeli military, as violence erupts in Israeli-occupied territory.
The Israeli military said its forces first attacked a vehicle in a rural area northwest of the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem early Saturday morning, killing its five occupants. The army said they were on their way to carry out an attack.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the bodies of the dead were taken to a nearby hospital in Tulkarem. Hamas later identified the five men as militants belonging to the group, including one who was a local commander.
According to an Associated Press journalist and witnesses, the explosion took place along a road connecting the Palestinian villages of Zeita and Qaffin.
“I was going to work in the morning and I heard an explosion here, next to the house,” said Taiser Abdullah, a Zeita resident.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said four of the bodies were “burned and charred beyond recognition” by the explosion.
Later on Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed four more Palestinian militants in the Tulkarem area shortly after they opened fire on Israeli troops operating in the area. No further information was immediately available about this second explosion.
More than 590 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since war between Israel and Hamas broke out in Gaza in October, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which tracks deaths. Most have died during Israeli raids and violent protests, but the dead also include bystanders and Palestinians killed in attacks by Jewish settlers.
The northern West Bank has seen the territory’s worst violence in the past 10 months. Tulkarem and its two refugee camps have become one of the main sources of tension in the territory and are periodically attacked by Israeli forces. Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are active in the city.
The attack came just days after the back-to-back assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran early Wednesday and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut the night before, escalations that threaten to engulf the region in a full-fledged regional war. Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah, vowed to retaliate. Major airlines canceled flights to Tel Aviv, Israel and Beirut, Lebanon.
While Israel has said it is responsible for Shukr’s assassination, it has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the targeted killing of Haniyeh.
The Pentagon announced Friday night that the US military will move a squadron of fighter jets to the Middle East and maintain an aircraft carrier in the region. The day before, President Joe Biden said he had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seize the opportunity for a ceasefire with Hamas, adding that the killing of Haniyeh in Iran had “not helped” efforts to negotiate the end of the war.
At least 39,480 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the nearly 10 months since the brutal Hamas attack. The October 7 attack on Israel triggered the latest war between Israel and Hamas.. Palestinian health authorities who provide the number of victims do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
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Jeffery reported from Ramallah, West Bank.
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