5 Palestinians Killed In Israel Strikes In West Bank

Israeli strikes killed five people in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, including four at a refugee camp, emergency services and the Israeli army said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said an Israeli strike killed four people in the northern city of Tulkarem.

"Palestine Red Crescent teams transport four martyrs from inside Tulkarem camp due to the occupation's bombardment," the group said in a statement.

An official at the camp confirmed the men had been killed in the strike.

"The camp is besieged by aircraft and heavy numbers of the Israeli army, and tanks," Faisal Salama told AFP.

In a separate incident near Balata refugee camp, the army said Ahmed Abdullah Abu Shalal, a Palestinian militant, had been killed in an air strike, averting a "terrorist attack" he was planning.

He had been responsible for a "number of terrorist attacks" over the past year, including one in annexed east Jerusalem, the army said.

It said Abu Shalal was killed following intelligence "of his cell's intentions of carrying out an imminent terrorist attack".

An AFP correspondent saw a pile of debris and mangled remains of a car that was hit in the strike near the camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7, the West Bank has experienced a level of violence not seen since the second Palestinian uprising or intifada between 2000 and 2005.

Israeli army raids and attacks by settlers have killed around 350 people in the territory, according to an AFP tally based on sources from both sides.

Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

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