Ramallah, 4 August 2024 (TDI): An Israeli airstrike in the occupied West Bank killed a Hamas commander and four Islamic Jihad fighters on Saturday.
The Israeli army said the first airstrike hit a vehicle in a town near the city of Tulkarm, targeting a militant cell it claimed was on its way to carry out an attack.
A Hamas media outlet said a vehicle carrying fighters had been targeted and that one of those killed was a commander of its Tulkarm brigades.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said the other four men were its fighters.
Hours later, a second attack targeted another group of fighters who had fired on Israeli forces, the military said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported five men had been killed in the first strike and WAFA said 4 people died in the second. It said their identities were not immediately known.
Violence in the West Bank was on the rise before the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and has intensified since, with frequent Israeli raids in the territory, which is among those that the Palestinians seek for a state.
There has also been a surge in anti-Israeli street attacks by Palestinians.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli airstrikes killed six people in a house in the southern Rafah on Saturday and two others in Gaza City, further north, according to the health officials in Gaza.
At least 31 Palestinians were killed across the enclave on Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry said, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
The Israeli army said its forces had struck militants and destroyed Hamas infrastructure in Rafah and elsewhere in the Gaza.
At least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Moreover, an Israeli delegation was due in Cairo, Egypt over the weekend to discuss a possible hostage release and Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Chances of a breakthrough appear low as regional tension has intensified following the killing of Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli attack in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a top military commander from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
