Israeli military raid in West Bank kills 3 as tensions escalate: Officials

Palestinian officials said Thursday that an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike and third by Israeli gunfire. The Israeli military said its forces were targeting militants in the area of the Nur Shams refugee camp, which has seen repeated battles in recent months. The military said it eliminated a Hamas militant in the area who was involved in planning attacks on Israelis.

Meanwhile, mediators are ramping up efforts to halt the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, circulating new proposals to wind down the regional conflict.

 

Hezbollah's newly named leader, Naim Kassem, said the militant group will keep fighting in its war with Israel until it is offered cease-fire terms it deems acceptable.

Some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Lebanon, according to government estimates. Lebanon's Heath Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 12,900 wounded since Oct 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducting 250 others.

  Here's the latest:

Officials in West Bank say 3 people were killed in Israeli raid

RAMALLAH, West Bank Palestinian officials said an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people.

The military said its forces were targeting militants in the area of the Nur Shams refugee camp, which has seen repeated battles in recent months. The military said it eliminated a Hamas militant in the area who was involved in planning attacks on Israelis.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike and third by Israeli gunfire.

Israel said its forces were still in the area.

At least 763 Palestinians, including over 165 children, have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since Hamas' Oct 7, 2023 attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered the war there, according to the Health Ministry.

Most appear to have been militants killed during army operations, but the dead also include civilian bystanders and people killed during violent protests.

Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis since the start of the war.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. Israel has built scores of settlements there that are now home to over 500,000 Israeli settlers.

The 3 million Palestinians in the territory live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercising limited self-rule in population centres.