At least five Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air attack on a car in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas and Israeli forces shot dead a teenager in the Far’a refugee camp, according to the Wafa news agency.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that three drone strikes hit a group of fighters that posed a threat to soldiers in Tubas, killing a number of individuals including Mohammad Zakaria Zubeidi, whom it described as a “significant terrorist” in the Jenin area.
In a separate incident, Wafa reported that Israeli soldiers fired several bullets at the 16-year-old, Majed Fida Abu Zeina, in Far’a, “abused him and prevented ambulance crews from reaching him”.
“Then they dragged him out of the camp using a military bulldozer,” the report said.
The Israeli military said he was armed with an explosive device but there was no claim from any armed groups that he was a member.
According to Wafa, Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulances transported two people wounded in the Israeli air attack to the Tubas Turkish Government Hospital, along with the bodies of the five deceased men.
The agency also reported that Israeli forces were raiding the al-Ein refugee camp, west of the city of Nablus.
Israel began a massive military offensive across the West Bank last week that has killed at least 39 Palestinians and wounded 130, with the vast majority of casualties in Jenin.
On Thursday, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reported that the Israeli siege on Jenin continues with troops patrolling the area near the Jenin refugee camp as well as the city of Jenin.
“Palestinians have been telling us that the destruction is continuing not just to the roads, but also to the homes inside the camp,” Ibrahim said.
“Many people have been lacking a lot of medicine and food. And they’ve been trying to see where the Israeli vehicles are to try and avoid them and go to search for some food and some medicine.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli forces were using “lethal war-like tactics” in the West Bank and that Palestinian children were among those killed.
The military raids, mostly concentrated on the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps, constitute Israel’s largest assault on the occupied territory since the second Intifada in the early 2000s.
The raids have seen significant violence and numerous arrests, while roads and other infrastructure have been destroyed by Israeli military bulldozers, the OCHA said, adding that it had mobilised organisations from the UN and beyond to assess the damage and humanitarian needs on the ground.
Since October, at least 685 Palestinians, including 157 children, have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied territory, according to Palestinian health officials.
