At least 18 people including several Hamas fighters have been killed in an Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said late on Thursday.
The Palestinian Authority-run news agency Wafa said the strike had hit a cafe in the Tulkarm refugee camp where many civilians were present.
Hamas confirmed that commander Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi was killed by the strike, who the IDF say attempted a car bombing last month and supplied weapons.
The Israeli military said the air strike was a joint operation with its Shin Bet security service, aimed at killing Oufi and “other significant terrorists”.
Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said on messaging app Telegram that seven of its fighters were killed in the attack on the cafe.
There was a further spike in violence in the West Bank after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza, in what was already the occupied territory’s deadliest year on record.
Since then, more than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, according to the Palestinian health ministry, as Israeli forces have intensified their raids. The IDF has said it is trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.
The Israeli military has carried out dozens of air strikes in the occupied West Bank in the past year, but normally using drones or helicopters.
One resident from the area told AFP news agency the Israeli had “hit a cafeteria in a three-story building.”
“There are many victims in the hospital,” the resident added.
It said he had been planning another attack imminently, and was killed along with several other Hamas operatives.
Wafa quoted a local official as saying children and elderly people from several families had been killed in the strike. There were also a large number of injured.
A local cafe owner and brother of one of those killed told Reuters news agency: “We are used to missile sounds, drones and the explosive drones, but the sound was strong.
“We haven’t heard this sound since 2002, during the second Palestinian uprising.”
Another witness, named as Abdallah Kanana, told the agency he was thrown from his chair as a result of the explosion.
The UN rights office condemned the attack in a statement on Friday.
“The strike is part of a highly concerning pattern of unlawful use of force by ISF (Israeli security forces) during military-like operations in the West Bank that have caused widespread harm to…
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