By Ali Sawafta
TULKARM (Reuters) – Six Palestinians were killed by a drone strike during an Israeli raid n the West Bank city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday, one of the latest examples of rising violence since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The Israeli military said its forces came under attack by militants who threw explosive devices at them during a counter-terrorism operation. The attackers were struck by an Israeli air force aircraft, it said.
The confrontation took place in the Nour Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, a flashpoint city on one of the main crossing points into the West Bank.
Witnesses said the six young men killed in the strike were sitting together in the early hours of the morning but were not involved in clashes with Israeli forces conducting a raid in other parts of the camp.
“We heard the sound, and the screaming, our house is nearby so we came out to see,” said Izzaldin Assaili, a resident who lives nearby.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the young men were aged between 17 and 29. Another man, aged 24, died of wounds received in a clash last month, the agency said, quoting the health ministry.
No detailed comment on the incident was immediately available from the Israeli military.
The West Bank had already been experiencing the highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months preceding the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen but confrontations have risen sharply as Israel have launched a ground invasion of Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers over the past weeks and security forces have carried out thousands of arrests, with repeated confrontations between troops and Palestinian protesters.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta; Writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Grant McCool)
