Israel on Friday carried out a rare air strike in the occupied West Bank, and said it had killed a Hamas operative and two accomplices.
The strike hit a car near Jenin in the northern West Bank. The Israeli military rarely uses air power in the Palestinian territory, which its ground troops have occupied since 1967.
Hamas condemned the strike but did not claim the target – whom the Israeli military named as Qais Bitawi – as a member.
The West Bank has seen a surge in militant Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians as well as military raids into Palestinian towns. The northern West Bank, where Jenin is, was the site of a major Israeli assault last year, which the military says was against militant strongholds.
The Israeli military claimed Mr Bitawi was involved in directing attacks on Israeli civilians and security forces. It said he maintained ties with Hamas members in Gaza, where the group is based, as well as abroad.
The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance service said Israeli ground troops raided the site of the drone strike, briefly detained medics, and prevented them from transporting those wounded or killed to hospital. Israel's military did not immediately comment on that claim.
Israel’s Minister of Defence, Israel Katz, said the military would remain permanently in Jenin, where it launched an unprecedented invasion of a refugee camp in early 2025. “These are the fruits of the aggressive and proactive policy we are leading in the West Bank: we do not wait for terror – we pursue it, conquer its strongholds and thwart its people,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the army for the “successful thwarting of the terrorists in Jenin”.
Israel's 2025 operations in the northern West Bank forced thousands of Palestinians from their homes, with Israeli forces clearing out refugee camps and maintaining their longest presence in some West Bank cities for decades.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity over what it said were forced expulsions. Israel denies wrongdoing.
In Gaza, where the US has been working to salvage a deal that would disarm Hamas militants in exchange for Israel withdrawing from the territory, at least five Palestinians were killed in three Israeli strikes on Friday, Gaza health officials said.
Those incidents included an Israeli strike near Deir Al Balah that killed three people from the same family, a strike on a motorbike that killed one in Gaza city and a separate strike in Gaza city that killed one Palestinian, according to health officials. The Israeli military did not immediately provide comment on the strikes.
