Israeli raid kills 7 Palestinians in Jenin area of West Bank, officials say
JERUSALEM — Palestinian authorities say seven people were killed Friday during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank around the city of Jenin, where the Israeli military said it had been carrying out “counterterrorism activity” that included an airstrike.
The military said Israeli soldiers had “encircled a building where terrorists have barricaded themselves in” and the soldiers had exchanged fire with those inside, while an airstrike had “struck several armed terrorists” in the area.
Sometimes in Gaza it feels like a cigarette is the only thing that might help. But even that is out of reach.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said seven people had been killed, but did not specify whether they died in the exchange of fire or the airstrike. The Islamic Jihad militant group named four of the dead as its members.
The clashes in Jenin, a known militant stronghold where the army frequently operates, came a day after an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group said the government plans to build nearly 5,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The construction plans revealed by the Peace Now group are part of the hard-line government’s efforts to beef up settlements as part of a strategy of cementing Israel’s control over the West Bank to prevent a future Palestinian state. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for an independent state.
An Israeli airstrike killed a prominent Palestinian doctor and eight members of his extended family after they complied with orders to evacuate.
Violence has spiraled in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, sparked by the Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel by Hamas militants who killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 others as hostages. The Palestinian Health Ministry says over 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war. Most have been killed during Israeli raids and violent protests. The dead also include bystanders and Palestinians killed in attacks by Jewish settlers.
In Gaza, the war has so far killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. The ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count, but it includes thousands of women and children.
Cease-fire talks appeared to be reviving after stalling for weeks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that he was sending negotiators to resume the talks, a day after Hamas handed mediators its latest response to a U.S.-backed proposal for a deal.
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