Four Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on West Bank

The Palestinian health ministry said the Israeli army killed four people in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, as Israel announced a strike that killed four “terrorists.”

The ministry updated the death toll from two earlier on Sunday, saying four people were killed “due to the occupation’s aggression on the village of Siir, Jenin district,” referring to Israel.

The Israeli military said later on Sunday in a joint statement with the Shin Bet internal security agency that a “terrorist cell responsible for several shooting attacks in the Gilboa area has been eliminated” in a strike.

It said four “terrorists” were killed in the strike.

“Immediately after the strike, (Israeli) soldiers conducted a targeted raid in the area and located three weapons on the terrorists’ bodies,” the army said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said earlier on Sunday that Israeli forces had been “preventing our teams from reaching the bombing site” near Siir.

“In the morning, the planes came and started bombing this area,” said Fares Irshaid, a resident of the village. “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 neighbors, and we do not know their fate,” he said.

Last month, the Israeli army launched several raids in Jenin, killing nine people, the majority of them Palestinian militants.

Two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were also killed during an Israeli raid in the West Bank village of Yabad on November 24, the Palestinian Authority said.

Violence in the West Bank, particularly in the north of the territory, has soared since the war in Gaza began in October last year after Hamas’ attack on Israel.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 780 Palestinians in the West Bank during the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.

Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.