Jerusalem, Dec 17 (EFE).- Israeli attacks killed at least four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank’s on Sunday, taking the toll in Israeli raids to 500 in the territory this year.
The Palestinian health ministry said the casualties occurred during an “ongoing large-scale military offensive” in the Nour Shams refugee camp of Tulkarm city in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The official Wafa news agency citing unnamed sources said at least two of the victims were killed in a drone strike, targeting them while they were in the refugee camp. The strike also left several others wounded.
The agency said the two bled to death as the Israeli forces prevented ambulance access to the camp.
The news agency identified the deceased as Jihad Aarneh, 25, Mahmoud Samer Jaber, 22, Ghayth Yasser Shahada, 25, Waleed Asa’ad Zahra, 22, and Asa’ad As’ad Zahra, 33.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the Israeli forces stopped emergency medical teams from entering the camp to reach a critically injured person with a head injury, despite coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The occupied West Bank has been the target of dozens of raids by Israeli troops since the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7.
Like the Balata refugee camps in Nablus or Jenin, Nour Shams houses local militants who usually confront Israeli troops, leading to intense armed combat.
On Saturday, armed clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian youth in several parts of the West Bank left two Palestinian youth dead near Ramallah.
The year has been marked by the deadliest violence in the region in two decades, further escalated since the Islamist Hamas movement, which effectively governs the Gaza Strip, launched a massive attack on Israel by land and air on Oct 7.
Since then, 295 Palestinians, including over 70 minors, have died in clashes with Israeli forces. At least nine have died at the hands of settlers.
Israeli forces say they have arrested more than 2,200 Palestinians, more than half suspected of links to Hamas.
The occupied territory is grappling with the worst spiral of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05).
Since the beginning of 2023, some 504 Palestinians have died in the West Bank, most of them militants in armed clashes with Israeli troops and attackers. The dead also include civilians, including more 100 minors.
Simultaneously, the area has seen the proliferation of new Palestinian armed groups, which increasingly carry out attacks, resulting in 41 deaths on the Israeli side, most of them settlers, five of them minors, and seven soldiers.
Israel took control of the West Bank during the 1967 Six-Day War and has maintained a long-standing occupation and colonization of the territory since.
In parallel, the area has seen the proliferation of new Palestinian armed groups, which carry out more and more attacks and have left 41 dead on the Israeli side, most of them settlers. EFE
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