Israeli troops carried out an airstrike in the northern West Bank on Sunday, resulting in the death of a Palestinian militant and injuries to five others, according to Palestinian health officials. The strike occurred in Nur Shams, an urban refugee camp frequently targeted by the Israeli military and known as a stronghold for Palestinian militants. The state-run Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that an Israeli drone fired three missiles, hitting a house.
Islamic Jihad identified the deceased as Saeed al-Jaber, one of its local commanders. Wafa noted that al-Jaber had previously escaped a drone strike on June 20. The identities of the wounded were not disclosed, but health officials mentioned that two of them were in critical condition.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the home, stating that the militants inside, including al-Jaber, were responsible for recent attacks on Israeli targets.
The occupied West Bank has seen a surge in violence since the war in Gaza erupted in October. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports that over 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the war began. Most of these deaths occurred during Israeli raids and violent protests, but the casualties also include bystanders and Palestinians killed in attacks by Jewish settlers.
Israel launched an aerial and ground offensive in Gaza in response to a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 37,800 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, although the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its toll.
In recent days, Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian militants in Shijaiyah, an eastern part of Gaza City. Israel returned to the neighborhood last week, months after claiming it had completed operations in the area. Hamas has repeatedly regrouped in hard-hit areas after Israeli troops pulled out, raising questions about Israel’s commitment to destroying the militant group’s military capabilities.
The latest operation has forced thousands of residents to flee. The Israeli army reported on Sunday that it had killed dozens of militants in “close-quarters combat” and airstrikes, and confiscated weapons from a hideout that Hamas had allegedly kept in a United Nations-supported school.
Palestinians continued to flee the area in and around Rafah, a southern Gaza city where Israel claims it is in the final stages of an offensive. More than 1.3 million Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israel’s incursion into the city in early May. However, with few safe places to go, tens of thousands of people have stayed behind, mostly in outlying areas previously thought to be safe. Large groups of people fled with tents, mattresses, and clothes piled on trucks or donkey-pulled carts. Many walked on foot in search of shelter. Even places thought to be safe suffer from overcrowding and poor health conditions.
For many Palestinians in the war-torn enclave, this was not their first displacement. They say the experience does not get any easier. Mohammad Hajjaj, who was first displaced from Shijaiyah in the early weeks of the war, said, “This is the fourth time going from place to place where they (the Israeli military) tell us is a safe area but turns out it isn’t.” Hajjaj and his family woke to the sound of Israeli tank fire nearby two days ago before leaving. “We slept on the streets,” he said.
The fleeing Palestinians found space on a plot of land in nearby Khan Younis and began setting up their tents alongside dozens of others on the sandy lot. “We came to Khan Younis from Muwasi,” said Mervette Shamlakh, referring to the Israeli-designated coastal “humanitarian zone” that has little basic services. “It’s the same thing again and we had to flee … we have no idea where we are supposed to go.”
In Muwasi, scores of men, women, and children stood in line for hours as they crowded around trucks and water tanks in the scorching heat to collect their share of drinking and potable water. People said water had always been scarce in the sandy area, even before the displaced Palestinians arrived. “I’m filling a bottle just like this, to have a liter of drinking water for 16 people who live with me at home,” Issam Al Dayah told the AP as he waited his turn. “We suffer from everything. Not just water,” said Mai Al Rae after struggling to get through the crowd to fill a bucket. “How long is life going to be like this?”
The fighting has also threatened to spread to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been trading fire with Hezbollah militants in daily clashes. The Israeli military reported that an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah crashed into the Golan Heights on Sunday, severely wounding a soldier and lightly injuring 17 others. Israeli warplanes and artillery units responded by striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Source: AP News
