Two Israeli strikes on Saturday in the occupied West Bank left a total of nine dead, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, with the Israeli army indicating that it had targeted two “terrorist cells” as part of a counter-terrorism operation in Tulkarem.
Five people were initially killed in a drone strike, according to Wafa, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted “five terrorists” who were preparing to carry out an attack.
The director of Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem, on the western edge of the West Bank, reported “five martyrs who arrived at the hospital following an Israeli drone strike on a Palestinian vehicle near the village of Zeita.”
For his part, a spokesman for the Israeli army told AFP that “five terrorists […] “about to carry out a terrorist attack” had been killed “in a vehicle”.
“The army, the Shin Bet [service de sécurité intérieure] and the police are currently conducting an anti-terrorist operation in the Tulkarem region,” the spokesman added.
“I live less than 50 meters from here, we heard the sound of an explosion and saw a vehicle on fire” on the road towards Zeita, north of Tulkarem, “a witness at the site of the attack told AFP.”
“Nearby, we saw a body lying on the road. Inside the vehicle, there were three charred bodies,” added the man, Nasser, who declined to give his last name. The area was later sealed off by the Israeli army, according to Wafa.
Later in the day, Wafaa reported that four Palestinians were killed in another Israeli strike that hit a vehicle they were traveling in.
The army confirmed the airstrike, saying that “an additional terrorist cell was eliminated” as part of the anti-terrorist operation in Tulkarem governorate.
The West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has been experiencing a surge in violence for two years, exacerbated by the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil.
Since that date, at least 599 Palestinians have been killed there by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian authorities, and at least 17 Israelis, including soldiers, in Palestinian attacks or bombings, according to official Israeli data.