July 2, 2024
NUR SHAMS REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops carried out an airstrike in the northern West Bank on Sunday, killing a Palestinian militant and wounding five other people, Palestinian health officials said.
The strike took place in Nur Shams, an urban refugee camp that has been a frequent target of the Israeli military and is known as a stronghold of Palestinian militants. The state-run Palestinian news agency Wafa said an Israeli drone fired three missiles and struck a house.
Islamic Jihad identified the dead man as Saeed al-Jaber, one of its local commanders. Wafa said he had escaped a previous drone strike on June 20. There were no details on the identities of the wounded. Health officials said two were in critical condition.
The Israeli military confirmed an attack on the home, saying that militants inside, including al-Jaber, were responsible for recent attacks on Israeli targets.
The West Bank has experienced a surge in violence since the war in Gaza erupted in October when Israel launched an aerial and ground offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. In that attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.
Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian militants in an eastern part of Gaza City, Shijaiyah, in recent days. Israel returned to the neighborhood last week, months after saying it had completed operations in the area.
The latest operation has sent thousands of residents fleeing. The army said Sunday it has killed dozens of militants in “close-quarters combat” and airstrikes, and confiscated weapons from a hideout it said Hamas had kept in a United Nations-supported school.
The fighting has threatened to spread to Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been trading fire with Hezbollah militants in daily clashes.
The Israeli military said an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah crashed into the Golan Heights on Sunday, severely wounding a soldier and lightly hurting 17 others. It said Israeli warplanes and artillery units responded by striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
