Palestinians say Israeli drone strike kills West Bank militant

NUR SHAMS (AFP): The Palestinian health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday in the occupied West Bank killed a man identified by the Islamic Jihad militant group as one of its commanders.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack, which official Palestinian news agency Wafa said was carried out with a drone.

The Ramallah-based health ministry said a Palestinian man was killed and five other people were wounded “following a strike by the (Israeli) occupation” in the northern West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp.

Wafa identified the slain man as Saeed Izzat Jaber, 24.

Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad later said “the martyred leader” was one of its commanders, adding that he had previously “survived several assassination attempts.”

Jaber’s killing “will strengthen our resistance” against Israel, the group said.

According to Wafa, the Israeli military had fired three projectiles from a drone at a house in the camp near the town of Tulkarm.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its crews were treating two people wounded from “shrapnel following a strike on a house in the Nur Shams camp.”

The organization added that rescuers were initially unable to enter the targeted building “due to fire.”

An AFP correspondent later saw Nur Shams residents searching through the rubble, while blocks of concrete slabs lay scattered as a portion of the house was ripped off by the strike.

Even before the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7, the West Bank saw a surge of violence which has since escalated to levels unseen in about two decades, with frequent military raids and attacks by Israeli settlers.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

At least 554 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli forces or settlers since the Gaza war began, according to Palestinian officials.

Attacks by Palestinians in the West Bank over the same period have killed at least 15 Israelis including soldiers, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.