RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) -Israeli security forces killed four Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Monday in the latest in a series of deadly incidents that have spiralled in the wake of the war in Gaza.
Israel’s military and police said in a joint statement the four killed were part of a West Bank cell that was directed by the Islamist movement Hamas and which was behind numerous shooting attacks.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the four were killed in the western West Bank city of Tulkarm, close to the boundary with Israel, after Israeli forces opened fire on their car.
Prior to the latest incident, at least 155 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank since the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
The worsening violence comes after more than 18 months of bloodshed that has fuelled fears the West Bank could explode and become a new front in the Israel-Hamas war.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Ari Rabinovitch. Writing by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Mark Heinrich)
