Palestinian officials say eight dead in Israel West Bank raids

GAZA (AFP): Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed eight people in two separate raids in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, as violence in the occupied territory showed no sign of abating.

Four people were killed in the Jenin area and four in Tubas district when Israeli forces carried out early morning raids, the Palestinian Red Crescent and the health ministry in Ramallah said.

The Israeli army reported its aircraft struck “armed terrorist cells” in the Jenin area, but did not give details on casualties.

“Four martyrs and three wounded, one of whom is very critical, due to the occupation’s shelling of two vehicles in the eastern neighbourhood of Jenin,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.

It later said three more were wounded in Jenin.

The health ministry said: “There are four martyrs and seven wounded from occupation gunfire in the town of Aqaba in Tubas district.”

The ministry later said three more were wounded in Aqaba.

Aqaba residents said Israeli troops arrived at dawn and surrounded the house of Amid Ghanam leading to clashes between troops and young Palestinians.

Ghanam and two others were killed in the clashes, while another teenager was killed near a hospital, Tubas governor Ahmed Assad told AFP.

“The army entered and surrounded the house as snipers took positions on nearby rooftops and shot anyone who moved,” he said.

The teenager was shot when the troops “entered the area of the hospital,” Assad said.

Aqaba mayor Abdel Razzaq Abu Arra said the teenager “was killed in cold blood”.

“This Zionist crime is a systematic crime that the Israelis carry out on a daily basis,” he added.

Since war broke out in October between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, tensions have soared in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

At least 613 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian official figures.

At least 17 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed by Palestinian attacks in the West Bank over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

In a separate incident later on Tuesday, police said they killed a Palestinian after he attacked a border police officer with a screwdriver at a checkpoint near Jerusalem.

Police officers immediately “neutralised the terrorist with gunfire, and he was subsequently pronounced dead,” the force said in statement.