Israeli forces kill 7 in West Bank, Palestinian officials say

BEITUNIA, West Bank – Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including two minors and at least one gunman, in the occupied West Bank late on Nov 25 and early on Nov 26, medics and local sources said.

The West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has experienced a surge in violence parallel to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, now in its eighth week.

Five of the overnight deaths occurred in the city of Jenin.

The Israeli military said it conducted a raid there to detain a Palestinian who is suspected of involvement in a lethal West Bank ambush in August, as well as 20 other suspects.

During the raid, Israeli forces “engaged with armed terrorists and killed five of them”, the military said in a statement.

The Jenin Brigades, a local armed group, said its fighters battled the Israeli troops.

It did not immediately provide details on any casualties, but local witnesses said at least one of the Palestinians killed in Jenin was a known Brigades member.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces stormed Jenin from several directions, firing bullets and surrounding government hospitals and the headquarters of the Red Crescent Society.

A sixth Palestinian fatality was in Yatma, a village near Nablus city.

Another was near a Jewish settlement outside the West Bank town of El-Bireh, Palestinian officials said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on those incidents.

Six other Palestinians were injured during the shooting in Jenin, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

A number of Palestinian factions called for a strike in Jenin on Nov 26 to “mourn the souls of the martyrs”, Wafa said.

About 200 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers since the Oct 7 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war, according to United Nations figures.

Four Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank in the same period, the figures show. 

On the evening of Nov 24, Palestinian militants shot and killed two Palestinian men in the West Bank after accusing them of collaborating with Israel, according to residents in the area and videos circulating on social media.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the two men had been killed and that the videos posted to social media were authentic.

The official declined to comment on the motive for the killings but said security forces were investigating, and they had not made any arrests.

Masked assailants dragged the two men to the main entrance of Tulkarem refugee camp, shouting “Collaborators! Collaborators!”, residents in the camp said.

As a crowd formed around them, the assailants beat both men and shot them about a dozen times each, according to the residents.

Afterwards, others from the crowd spat and stomped on their corpses, residents said. Videos posted on social media showed men hanging the two bodies from an electrical tower near the entrance of the camp.

“Who are they? They are collaborators!” one man yelled as he kicked one of the bodies, one of the videos showed.

According to three residents of the camp, the two men who were killed were kidnapped by Palestinian militants in November.

The militants suspected that the men had given information to Israeli security forces that led to a deadly raid at the camp, the residents said.

The New York Times could not immediately reach the militant group involved or the relatives of the two men who were killed.

Later on Nov 24, some people took down one of the bodies and tried to bury it, according to Mr Hassan Hamdan, a resident at the camp.

“These guys felt sorry for him,” Mr Hamdan said. “But the residents did not allow them to bury him in the camp’s cemetery.”

Israeli security forces have carried out daily raids in the West Bank, erected scores of new checkpoints and enforced curfews for Palestinian residents in some areas of the territory.

Violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has also reached record highs, according to the United Nations.

In Tulkarem refugee camp, home to more than 20,000 people in the north-western area of the West Bank, the Israeli military has conducted frequent raids, arresting dozens of people and stoking unease among residents. REUTERS, NYTIMES