Four Palestinians were killed at dawn on Friday during incursions by the Israeli army into the northern occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian Wafa agency reported.
The agency said three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire during an incursion by “a large force” of the Israeli army into Jenin. “Violent clashes” took place between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian activists and twelve Palestinians were also injured during this incursion.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas announced in a statement the death of one of its fighters during the Israeli raid. A fourth Palestinian was killed in another Israeli army incursion into the town of Qalqilya, south of Jenin. Hamas claimed that he too was one of its activists.
107 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 7
No comment from the Israeli army on these raids could be immediately obtained. Furthermore, a Palestinian injured on October 20 by Israeli fire in Jenin died on Friday, according to Wafa.
These deaths bring to 107 the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank during Israeli army operations since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7. The situation in the West Bank, occupied since 1967 by Israel, was already tense before the Gaza war.
The rise in violence began in the West Bank before the war, with regular raids carried out by Israeli forces and an increase in attacks by Israeli settlers against the Palestinian population.