Israeli attack: Palestinian Authority says four dead in Israeli attack in West Bank

JERUSALEM: Four people were killed in an Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday. The Israeli military said it was a “terrorist cell” that had planted an explosive device.

The attack took place in the Nur Shams refugee camp, where violence has escalated in recent weeks as Israeli raids and attacks on Israeli settlers have reached levels not seen for decades against the backdrop of the Gaza war.

The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said four people were killed when occupying forces bombed the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli military said in a Telegram statement that one of its aircraft “attacked a terrorist cell in the Nur Shams area and planted an explosive device.”

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the dead were men aged between 20 and 25 who were killed in an Israeli drone attack near the centre of the camp.

Violence in the West Bank had already risen sharply before the Hamas attack on October 7, which marked the start of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, and has increased again since then.

According to Palestinian authorities, a woman and a child were killed and four others injured in an Israeli attack on the Nur Shams refugee camp on Monday.

In April, 14 people were killed in a two-day Israeli attack in Nur Shams, the Palestinian Red Crescent said at the time.

According to a Health Ministry count, at least 556 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict began.

According to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures, at least 15 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank during the same period.