Several killed in Israeli air strike near Tubas amid large-scale offensive
An Israeli air strike on Wednesday night killed 10 Palestinians and injured others in Tamoun, southeast of Tubas, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
A Palestinian official confirmed to AFP the attack had been carried out by a drone. The Israeli army, for its part, only reported the strike by an air force aircraft, based on intelligence from the Shin Bet.
Nearly half of those killed in the attack were under the age of 20, with the youngest being 15-year-old Muntaser Ali Muhammad Bani Matar.
According to the news outlet Arab48, Israeli forces prevented medical emergency crews from reaching the area.
Hamas issued a statement condemning the strike.
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"The escalating crimes of the fascist occupation in the West Bank and its continued policy of assassinations against our heroic resistance fighters and mujahideen... are a reaffirmation of the occupation's criminal approach against our people and a failed attempt to break our valiant resistance," it said.
The strike comes as part of a large-scale Israeli offensive across the occupied territory. It follows the killing of a 25-year-old man in Jenin on Wednesday, identified as Osama Omar Abu Al-Haija.
On Thursday morning, the Palestinian Ministry of Health was also notified of the killing of Qasim Aboud Mutie Aklik, 42, in Nablus.
The General Authority of Civil Affairs said that Aklik's death was a result of Israeli shelling.
The recent escalation has been focused mainly on the northern cities of Jenin - where Israeli raids have been ongoing for nearly two weeks and have led to the killing of at least 17 people - and Tulkarm, which is under Israeli attacks for the fourth consecutive day.
The two cities' refugee camps have been especially hit by the current Israeli "counterterrorism operation", dubbed Operation Iron Wall.
In Jenin, an Israeli air strike on the city's camp was reported on Thursday, with the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reporting that war planes continue to circle the area.
Over 100 homes have been destroyed in the ongoing Israeli assault, leaving many families displaced, Wafa reported.
'Judea and Samaria is the event before us'
Other cities and refugee camps in the occupied territory have faced similar Israeli raids and demolitions, including Nablus, Qalqilya and East Jerusalem.
A senior officer in the Israeli General Staff said that the "real challenge" for Israel is "not only Gaza and not only Hamas", but actually the West Bank, the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth (Ynet) reported on Wednesday.
According to the outlet, the officer indicated Israeli plans for a large-scale invasion of the West Bank.
"Judea and Samaria is the event before us, and this is a huge event and we are well aware of this," he said, using the Biblical term employed in Israel to refer to the occupied West Bank.
Israeli attacks on the occupied West Bank are going to deepen suffering and violence against Palestinians, a group of UN special rapporteurs and independent experts warned on Monday.
“We are dismayed by the escalation of deadly violence sweeping through Jenin and the rest of the occupied West Bank,” the experts said. “Israel's repression seems to have no end in sight.
"The Israeli government must instruct its military and security forces to immediately cease any use of excessive force and exercise restraint and withdraw its troops from the occupied West Bank, as ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2024," they added.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 873 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war on Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 29 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to official Israeli figures cited by AFP.
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