Israel troops kill 3 in West Bank raid: Palestinian ministry

TUBAS (Palestinian Territories) (AFP): Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in an overnight raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday.

It was the latest in a surge of violence in the restive Palestinian territory since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip on October 7.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said the three men were killed “by Israeli occupation bullets” during clashes in the Faraa refugee camp near the town of Tubas in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the raid.

Video footage posted on social media showed Israeli military vehicles entering Faraa under the cover of darkness.

“Dozens of young men and armed men from the camp confronted the forces before they called for more reinforcements, including bulldozers that dug the camp’s streets and struck the water and sewage networks,” said Assem Mansour, head of the camp’s popular committee.

One of the three men killed was a militant, he said, while the other two were civilians “in their homes and were killed by snipers deployed in the camp”.

The Israeli military has conducted frequent arrest raids in the West Bank.

Since the war in Gaza began, at least 403 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Palestinian militants have also carried out numerous attacks against Israeli troops and civilians in Israel and the West Bank, killing at least 15 people, according to Israeli figures.

Israel captured the West Bank — including east Jerusalem, which it later unilaterally annexed — in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. The Palestinians claim the territory along with the war-torn Gaza Strip for their future independent state.