At least five Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in a drone strike in the West Bank town of Tubas, as part of large-scale operations launched last week by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank.
“Five martyrs due to occupation bombing in Tubas,” the PA-affiliated Ministry of Health said in a brief message on its Telegram account. According to information collected by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, the attack was carried out near the Al Tauhid mosque in the city.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has confirmed the recovery of five bodies at the scene. The deceased have been identified as Mohamed Said Hussein Sauafta, Majd Burhan Jamil Sauafta, Qais Saeb Ratabe Sauafta, Yasin Ahmed Ali Sauafta and Talaba Mahmud Jamil Basharat, with no details given as to whether they belonged to any armed group.
The Israeli army has confirmed the bombing, saying it was carried out against “an armed terrorist squad” as part of what it describes as an operation against “terrorist infrastructure” in Tubas, part of “the operation in northern Judea and Samaria” –the biblical name for the West Bank–.
Two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in the West Bank town of Tulkarem by the Israeli army, as part of a resumption of the large-scale operation. Israeli troops withdrew from Jenin on Friday and there have been no operations since then, although the army said it would continue its operations.
The Palestinian Authority-linked health ministry has estimated the number of dead at more than 40 and nearly 150 wounded in the West Bank since the start of the security operation — dubbed “Summer Camps” — the largest in more than two decades, since the end of the Second Intifada in 2002.
Israel has stepped up its operations in the West Bank following the attacks carried out on October 7 by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, which left some 1,200 people dead and nearly 250 kidnapped. However, the area had already recorded its highest death toll at the hands of Israeli troops in the previous nine months of 2023.
Palestinian authorities have estimated that more than 690 people have been killed and nearly 5,700 injured since October 7 by Israeli forces’ operations and attacks by settlers, while more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 95,000 injured by the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.