AT least four Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, according to authorities.
The attack occurred in the village of Sir near Jenin on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. It said the killings were a result of “the occupation’s aggression”. Israel’s military also confirmed that four Palestinians were killed, describing them as “terrorists”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society, meanwhile, reported that Israeli forces had been “preventing our teams from reaching the bombing site”.
Fares Irshaid, a resident of Sir, described the attack to the AFP news agency.
“In the morning, the planes came and started bombing this area,” Irshaid said. “Shortly after that, the army stormed the entire area. They declared it a closed military zone.”
“There was a group of young men, including my nephew and the son of our neighbours, and we do not know their fate,” he told the news agency.
Israel has not released the bodies of those killed although the military identified one of the dead as 31-year-old Wael Lahluh.
There has been a surge in Israeli military operations and violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023.
At least 780 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, adding to the 44,429 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the war.
Israel said 24 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank during that period while Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killed at least 1,139 people.
