Israeli forces killed 14 Palestinians in a raid in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and an ambulance driver was killed as he went to pick up the wounded in another violent Jewish settler attack, the Palestinian authority said.
Israeli forces began a large-scale assault on the Noor Shams area near the Palestinian hotspot city of Tulkarem in the early hours of Friday and continued to exchange fire with militants as of Saturday.
Israeli military vehicles gathered, gunfire rang out and at least three drones hovered over Nur Shams, home to refugees and their descendants from the 1948 war that founded the state of Israel.
The Tulkarm brigade, which is made up of several Palestinian factions, said its fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces on Saturday.
The West Bank, a kidney-shaped area about 100 kilometers (60 miles) long and 50 kilometers wide, has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since it was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
The war in Gaza has cast a pall over ongoing violence in the region, which includes regular army attacks against militant groups, atrocities by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages and Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.
Since the Gaza war began, Israeli troops and police have arrested thousands of Palestinians in routine operations and hundreds have been killed, mostly members of armed groups but also stone-throwing youths and civilians who were not involved. .
On Saturday, Palestinian health authorities said at least 14 Palestinians were killed in the attack, with Palestinian sources and officials identifying two of them as the gunmen and a 16-year-old boy, in the deadliest casualty in the West Bank. One of the events. months. On Friday, another man was killed.
The Israeli military said that many militants were killed or captured in the attack, and at least four soldiers were injured in the crossfire.
In a separate incident, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 50-year-old ambulance driver was shot dead by Israel near the village of Al-Sawiya, south of the city of Nablus, as he was transporting injured people. Raid villages.
It is unclear whether he was shot by settlers. The military had no immediate comment.
Gaza attacks continue
The death toll in Gaza as fighting continues in Gaza has surpassed 34,000, despite the withdrawal of most Israeli combat forces from the southern region earlier this month, the Palestinian health authority said on Saturday.
Health officials and Hamas media said Israel struck the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge, Nuserat in central Gaza, where at least five houses were destroyed, and Jabaliya in the north. area. explain.
Hamas and Palestinian media said the attack hit a house in Rafah, killing a father, daughter and pregnant mother. Doctors at a Kuwaiti hospital were able to save the baby, making him the only surviving member of the family, medics said.
Five more Palestinians were killed in another Israeli air strike on the city just before midnight, health officials said.
The Israeli military said its troops were conducting raids in central Gaza and engaging in close combat with Palestinian militants.
Palestinian health authorities said a total of 37 Palestinians were killed and 68 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours.
This follows Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to attack Rafah has been met with widespread international opposition. The military said Hamas’s last remaining organized brigade is based in Rafah, where the remaining 133 hostages are believed to be held.
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