RAMALLAH, West Bank: An Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in the occupied West Bank killed a commander in the Palestinian armed group Hamas on Saturday, Hamas media stated, while according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA four other men were also killed.
The director of the Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem said in a statement that “five martyrs” had arrived at the facility after “an Israeli drone strike on a Palestinian vehicle close to the village of Zeita in Tulkarem”.
The Israeli military confirmed the airstrike, stating it targeted a militant cell near Tulkarm.
Following the drone strike, Israeli forces cordoned off the area, preventing residents from approaching, but paramedics and locals managed to retrieve the bodies and take them to the hospital.
According to the Palestinian media, Haitham Balidi, a leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades in Tulkarm, was among those killed in the drone strike.
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in early October 2023, casualties in the West Bank have increased due to intensified Israeli raids. Over 570 Palestinians, including 141 children, have been killed in the West Bank, and nearly 10,000 Palestinians have been detained.
Regionwide tensions have soared this week after the assassination of Hamas’ leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Teheran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Hezbollah senior military commander Fuad Shukr.
