IDF kills at least seven Palestinians in West Bank despite Gaza ceasefire, bringing death toll since war started to 239

Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians in the West Bank in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, as violence surged in the occupied territory amid the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.

Four Palestinians, including a teenager, were shot dead by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in the northern city of Jenin during a raid late on Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

A pre-dawn air strike on the city was also reported to have killed a senior fighter from the Jenin Brigade, a local armed group, and wounded several others.

The Israeli military said the five Palestinians it killed in Jenin were militants.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group claimed one of the men, identified as Asaad al-Damj (33) as a member. No group immediately claimed any of the others killed as members.

The IDF said it carried out the raid in the Jenin refugee camp to detain a wanted Palestinian alleged to have been involved in the killing of an Israeli father and son at a West Bank car wash earlier this year.

Local media reports suggested the Israeli army had surrounded Jenin’s public hospital and that soldiers were searching ambulances.

A sixth Palestinian was killed in Yatma, a village near the city of Nablus, and another, reported to be a teenager, was killed near a Jewish settlement outside the West Bank town of El Bireh, Palestinian officials said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on either of those incidents.

The IDF has conducted frequent military raids and arrested hundreds of Palestinians since the war started.

Violence in the West Bank has surged in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and the IDF’s retaliatory invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians and arrested hundreds in the West Bank. Jewish West Bank settlers have also stepped up attacks on Palestinians.

Before the Hamas attack, 2023 was already the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in over two decades.

Israeli forces have now killed 239 Palestinians in the territory since October 7, more than in any entire year since 2005, according to the UN.

Meanwhile, Palestinians have killed 24 civilians and members of the security services in the West Bank, the highest number in more than 15 years.

Rights groups have accused Israel of deepening its occupation of the West Bank closing down crossings between Palestinian towns and driving the territory’s already lacklustre economy to a halt.

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