The Israeli military says it has killed the head of the Palestinian armed group Hamas in Jenin and two other fighters, as a major operation continues for a third day in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Israeli security forces shot dead Wissam Khazem and then carried out air strikes on the other two as they attempted to flee, a statement said.
The Palestinian health ministry said the three men were killed overnight near the town of Zababdeh, south-east of Jenin. Hamas also confirmed their deaths.
The ministry said an elderly man was later killed by Israeli gunfire in Jenin itself, while Israeli forces pulled out of Tulkarm and its refugee camps.
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli operation, which is one of the biggest in the West Bank in two decades, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Armed groups have identified most of them as fighters.
The Israeli military has said 20 “terrorists” have been killed in exchanges of fire and air strikes and 17 suspects detained during what it has described as “a precise, targeted regional operation across three terror hubs”.
There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as Israeli forces have intensified their raids, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.
On Friday morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Shin Bet domestic security agency and Israel Border Police put out a joint statement announcing that Wissam Khazem had been killed during an operation in the Jenin area.
It said Border Police forces had “encountered and eliminated” Khazem in a car, and accused him of carrying out and directing shooting and bombing attacks.
Shortly afterwards, it added, an IDF aircraft had “eliminated two additional terrorists while they attempted to flee from the vehicle”. It named them as Maysara Masharqa and Arafat Amer, and alleged that they had taken part in shooting attacks.
The Palestinian health ministry said the three men had been killed in Zababdeh and that their bodies had been taken away by Israeli forces.
Residents of the town found the burned-out wreck of a car riddled with bullet holes and reported that there had been two drone strikes.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed that Khazem was a leader in Jenin camp and that Masharqa and Amer were members.
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