Jerusalem, Oct 25 (EFE).- Three people were killed in an Israeli drone attack on the Jenin refugee camp in northern West Bank early Wednesday, taking the total number of Palestinian deaths in the occupied West Bank since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel to 103, the highest since the Second Intifada, authorities said.
The figure includes “two martyrs inside Israeli occupation prisons” and the death of a Palestinian killed in clashes with Israeli troops in Qalquilya, the Palestinian health ministry said.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that “during anti-terrorist activities in the Jenin camp, armed terrorists fired and threw explosive devices at Israeli security forces.”
“In response, an Armed Forces unmanned aerial vehicle attacked the terrorists and hits were identified,” he added.
As part of the operation in the Jenin area, Israeli forces also carried out a raid in the nearby town of Burquin and detained two Palestinians suspected of “terrorist activities.”
“In addition, forces opened fire on armed terrorists. Hits were identified,” the spokesperson said.
In June, three members of the Jenin Brigade were killed during an Israeli drone strike, the country’s first airstrike in the West Bank since 2006 that ushered in three days of a large-scale ground and air offensive.
Last week, Israel launched missiles from a drone and an Apache helicopter over the Nur Shams refugee camp in the city of Tulkarem, also in the north of the occupied West Bank, killing 13 Palestinians.
Since the start of the war with the Palestinian militias in Gaza, led by Hamas, on Oct. 7, Israel has intensified its raids in the West Bank and detained more than 800 Palestinians “suspected of terrorism.”
At least 500 of them are alleged to have links with Hamas.
Nearly 6,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza from indiscriminate Israeli bombing during the war, which began after a brutal Hamas terrorist attack in Israel that left 1,400 dead.
The West Bank has been experiencing the worst wave of violence since the Second Intifada, a five-year uprising that ended in 2005, with more than 340 deaths so far this year.
Most of the casualties are militiamen killed in armed clashes with Israeli troops and attackers. The deceased include at least 50 minors.
The area has also seen the proliferation of new Palestinian armed groups, which are carrying out an increasing number attacks, leaving 33 dead on the Israeli side, most of them settlers.
Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967, and since then it has maintained a long regime of occupation and colonization over this territory. EFE
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